


Chiaroscuro

by CarpensDiem



Series: Chiaroscuro [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Good versus Evil, Hogwarts, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 19:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 47,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6766441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarpensDiem/pseuds/CarpensDiem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chiaroscuro: the arrangement of darkness and light to more accurately depict a subject.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

"I thought we agreed that we wouldn't talk about the Chamber of Secrets."  
Her vocal frigidness was refracted by her green eyes as the russet-haired girl entered the compartment on the Hogwarts Express to interrupt the trio's muttered conversation about the Chamber of Secrets and the events of their prior school year.

"We weren't," her twin brother, the elder by just over seven minutes lied immediately, looking at her through his round glasses.

"You can't lie to me," she warned, taking a seat across from him, "who is that?" She looked at the disheveled heap of a man asleep in the corner of the compartment.

"Professor R. J. Lupin," frizzy haired Hermione Granger stated automatically. 

"Interesting," she responded, decidedly disinterestedly, "now back to your former discussion about the Chamber of Secrets." Rachel Potter's green eyes flashed in irritation at her brother. 

Harry Potter sighed, avoiding eye contact with her, "we weren't really discussing anything about it. Just how we, er, hope this year won't be as..."

"...as dramatic," Hermione finished, nodding briskly.   
"Sure, okay," Rachel's voice emanated sarcasm.

"Where have you been anyway?" Harry asked, shifting the topic quickly.

"With my so-called 'Slytherin Sidekicks'," she replied, with an eye roll that accentuated the sharp synergy between her eyes and the color on her robes. "I do have friends in my own house you know."

Before a response could be countered, the noise of the train suddenly died away as it decelerated rapidly.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Ron Weasley announced irritably.

"No idea," Harry replied, peering out the window.

Rachel Potter's eyes flashed with suspicion. She stood and opened the compartment door, looking up and down the aisle. Most other compartments had done the same in confusion.  
"Something doesn't feel right," she murmured, goose bumps pricked her skin as chill went down her spine. Her left hand twitched, itching for its customary wand.

"Rach, close the door," she barely heard Harry's plea as she stared down the aisle of the train. Immediately, the lights on the train flickered out, throwing the train into chaotic darkness. Before she could close the door, a figure blindly knocked into her.

"Ow! Watch it!" She snapped, backing into the compartment.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Neville Longbottom apologized squeakily as he stumbled into the compartment in confusion, "say, what's going on-"

"I'm going to see," Hermione declared, opening the compartment door only to crash into another figure concealed by the darkness.

"Ginny? What're you doing here?"

"Looking for Ron-"

"Close the damn door!"

"What the bloody hell is going on-"

"What's that noise-"

"Quiet!" A voice snapped out of the darkness. The befuddled group lapsed into silence as the door to the compartment once more crept open, and sinister aura penetrated the compartment. Exhaled breath froze in the air as Rachel Potter felt dread slice through her sharper than a guillotine. Her vision blurred as she was unexpectedly pulled out of reality and into a memory, long buried and deliberately forgotten.

"Daddy! Mommy, where's Daddy going?" The one year old toddler cried with tear-filled green eyes, affected by her parents' sudden distress.  
"Rachel, come here, it's going to be all right, come to Mommy and Harry," her mother begged her, holding her twin brother in one arm, the other reaching out towards her only daughter.  
"I want to help Daddy!" The girl rebelled, leaping away from Lily Potter's outstretched arm and dashing out the same door her father had just hurried out of.  
"Rachel! NO!" The words echoed in the toddler's ears as she darted through the hallway, chasing her father hurriedly-"

"Rachel! Rach! Mach!" The repeated shouting and the harshness of her acquired nickname jolted Rachel Potter back into reality. She blinked furiously, discovering her eyes to be incredibly dry.  
"Wh-what?" She asked, looking around the compartment. Ginny and Neville were sitting across the compartment looking pale, Ron, Hermione, and Harry were standing over her, Harry looking as miserable as she felt, the other two looking terrified. The man, Professor Lupin, whom had demanded silence earlier stood next to them, was gazing down at her in confusion.

"You, well, you didn't faint like Harry here, but you kinda froze up and stared straight ahead without blinking for a good five minutes at least while the dementor was here and then after it left," Ron summarized quickly.

She stared at him, "what?" Before turning to Harry, "you fainted?"

"Yeah," he muttered darkly, nibbling at a piece of chocolate.

"Here, eat this," Professor Lupin handed her the last of the chocolate. "It'll help. I'm going to speak to the conductor."  
The group stared after him as he quickly left.

"Okay, what happened?" Rachel demanded, biting the chocolate immediately.

 

"Did you, er, hear any screaming at all?" Harry interrupted, demanding, staring across the cabin at his sister.

Her face visibly darkened, "you don't want to know."

***************************************

"Well, well, well, my least favorite Weasleys," Rachel Potter affected a tone of condescending superiority as she slipped in between Fred and George Weasley at the Gryffindor table in the bustling Great Hall, just having narrowly escaped being called to Professor McGonagall's office for an interrogation of the events on the train like Harry and Hermione had been. The "You're Not My Head of House" strategy worked every time with the Transfiguration professor.

"Mach! Our least favorite Slytherin!" They beamed in delight, each mischievously punching her in either shoulder.

Rachel laughed at the nickname they had created for her during her first year at Hogwarts; she had been walking back from the library on the first week of school and the redheaded twins had accidentally bowled her over in an attempt to outrun Hogwarts' notorious caretaker Argus Filch. The twins had at first apologized profusely for knocking her down and scattering her books everywhere before realizing she was Rachel Potter, Slytherin first-year, who had caused the biggest upset between the houses in generations, after being sorted into Slytherin immediately after her twin brother, none other than Harry Potter, had been sorted into Gryffindor. The Twins Who Lived being separated, even worse, with one going to Slytherin, was the biggest scandal of the year.

The Weasley twins had helped pick up her books, all the while informing her of how she missed out on being a Gryffindor, how her and Harry challenged their dominance as the most famous Hogwarts' twins, and how they thought she had an odd taste in books, judging from those they had scattered.  
"Woah, look at the author's name, try pronouncing that George," Fred elbowed his twin in the ribs, handing him a book he had just picked up from the stone floor.  
"Mashee...vell, Mach, veel... I dunno Fred, must be some foreign name. Say, how do you pronounce it?" He questioned first year Rachel Potter as he handed her back the book.  
"Machiavelli," she replied, taking it from him and laughing.  
"Some strange consonant pronunciations there."  
"Dodgy vowels."  
"Odd spelling."  
"'Mach' sounds better, like Mack, but keep the 'H' it adds an exotic flavor to it."  
"Definitely. Simple and smooth, but yet harsh on the tongue. Could be naughty or nice."

The Weasley twins thought the name incredibly clever, and insisted on calling her it. Quickly enough, the entire school had caught on and she was generally referred to as "Mach" by all of the various houses. Her own house, Slytherin, seized the name immediately, claimed to have invented it themselves, and used it as a way to differentiate "Their Potter" from "Gryffindor's Potter". Harry, naturally, hated the nickname and thought the entire thing foolish, to the delight of Slytherin house.

"Say," the twins drew her back to the present, "think Filch will lose it for good this year?"

Rachel laughed wickedly, "if he hasn't already, then definitely." Rachel Potter was notorious for discretely assisting the Weasley twins schemes, using Slytherin thinking to outwit and manipulate Filch and others expertly - it had assured the successful execution of many a Weasley prank. Gryffindor house thought it odd that a Slytherin would voluntarily assist a Gryffindor prank, but never failed to get a good laugh when a success was thought to be attributed to her. Slytherin house meanwhile, tolerated her partnership with Gryffindor because of the flawless Slytherin-esque thinking that contributed to it; her subtle, under-the-table assistance left no traces of her involvement other than a sly smile at a success, which never failed to thrill the snakes. The caretaker Filch, of course, was determined to find culpable evidence of her involvement with Weasley pranks and annually lost his mind when he failed to do so.

"I'd best go before Slytherin wants to fight," Rachel laughed, eyeing the glances Slytherin was sending her before fare-welling the twins and making her way towards her own house table.   
Draco Malfoy waved her over immediately, and she settled across from him. Her friendship with Draco Malfoy had been a never ending source of tension between not only her and Harry, but between her and the entire Gryffindor house, and had been so since their entire time at the school.

"Mach, can you confirm?" Draco asked, eagerness uplifting his pale face, "did Potter really faint on the train? Like, actually fainted?" He sniggered humorously.  
She rolled her eyes, "you know the answer."  
Draco and the surrounding Slytherins burst into raucous laughter before being hushed by a prefect, "pay attention, it's the sorting!"

Rachel turned to eye the newest additions to Hogwarts. Intimidated, they clustered together, feeling protection in a group until inevitably, they were called forth one by one, to be submitted to the most terrifying thing at Hogwarts, some claimed. Rachel remembered her own sorting vividly....

The applause and cheering which had exploded across the Great Hall when Harry Potter had been sorted into Gryffindor died away as Professor McGonagall called out the next name on the list.  
"Potter, Rachel."  
Gryffindor table immediately began roaring, convinced if they got one twin they would get the other.  
"We want the twins! We want the twins!" The cheer erupted up and down the Gryffindor table before slowly subsiding into an excited silence as the small girl timidly sat on the stool and the Sorting Hat was placed upon her head. The seconds ticked by as the Hat deliberated and carried out its internal conversation. The entire hall held its breath, awaiting the momentous decision.

After the longest two minutes the Great Hall could remember, the brim of the hat parted and shouted out, "Slytherin!"

Shocked silence descended upon the hall. Jaws dropped, eyes widened, students almost fell off their benches. The high table was no different. Professor Dumbledore's blue eyes were startled behind his half moon glasses before he recovered his composure and clapped slowly. At the same time the Slytherin table fractured the silence and erupted into cheers louder than Gryffindor had earlier, going to far to mock the Gryffindors and commence chanting, "we got Potter!"

Rachel Potter dashed across the hall to be welcomed by the overjoyed Slytherin table. She settled into a seat across from a blond boy who was also sorted into Slytherin.   
"Draco Malfoy," he extended his hand with a winning smile.  
"Rachel Potter," she grinned back, shaking his hand warmly before dozens of other Slytherins came over to shake her hand and gloat over her presence as a new Slytherin.

 

"Mach! Where've you been?" A voice interrupted Rachel's recollection; she turned to see three grinning girls coming to sit around her. The "Slytherin Sidekicks", as Gryffindor condescendingly called them: Kerry Carbone, Sadie Baldock, and Abigail Pugh, had been Rachel Potter's dorm-mates and best friends since first year.

"Gryffindor," she laughed laconically in explanation.

"Of course," Sadie returned the laugh.

"What happened with the dementor on the train?" Abigail questioned, as the girls attacked the dishes of food around them.

"Potter fainted!" Draco chipped in from across the table with a snicker.

"Yeah, and that's it really," Rachel closed the topic with a sharp tone.

"Well," Kerry switched the subject, "I'm thinking about trying out for the Quidditch team this year," her hazel eyes probed Rachel's green, "you should try out too."

Across the table Draco almost spat out his pumpkin juice as Rachel winced in remembrance. Last year the Slytherin Quidditch team had begged, cajoled, and threatened her to try out for Seeker, convinced she would be better than her brother. She acquiesced, only to take a Bludger to the chest and land in the hospital wing with three broken ribs and a punctured lung almost immediately after hopping on a broom. She had gotten distracted when the Quaffle had accidentally been tossed in her way by the Chasers, and while racing forward to catch it, both lost sight of the Snitch she was supposed to follow and hadn't seen the incoming Bludger.   
The Slytherin team collectively decided she wasn't needed as a Seeker after this incident, particularly after Lucius Malfoy financially secured his son's spot as Slytherin's Seeker, and Professor Snape had threatened the entire team with detention should they continue such "injurious recruiting processes".

"Mach and flying?" Draco arched an eyebrow, "that never ends well."

Kerry glared at him in annoyance, "that was one time! And she was trying out for a position that doesn't suit her."

"She was trying out for Seeker but thought she was a Chaser and tried to catch the Quaffle but also thought she was a Beater and ran straight into a Bludger," Draco summed up concisely.

 

Rachel laughed, "no, I was trying out for Seeker but got bored and a Quaffle came my way so I tried to catch it but then the Bludger hit me."

"Which is why she should be trying out for Chaser," Kerry summed up.

"What's this talk about Quidditch I hear?" Slytherin Quidditch captain Marcus Flint dropped into the seat next to Draco, glancing around at the group of third-years with curious eyes.

"Mach's trying out again apparently," Draco informed him immediately.

"We both are," Kerry corrected him, "as Chasers."

"I've already got Chasers on my team," Flint announced unapologetically, "sorry."

"Yeah, horrible ones," Abigail tossed in to receive a look of annoyance from Flint, who was also a Chaser.

"The team has a good line up this year, I don't really plan on making changes to it," Flint announced methodically.

"We can still show up and try out," Kerry pointed out ruthlessly, pointing her fork aggressively in the captain's direction.

"Look, I'm not telling either of you to not come to tryouts, next Saturday at dawn if you're still interested, it looks good when we have loads of people there and then Gryffindor gets pissed, but the line up is essentially frozen already," Flint stood to leave, "oh, and don't get hit by any Bludgers this time or Snape will dismantle the entire team," he added, looking at Rachel before heading off down the table.

"That was one time," Rachel groaned, "why is it all everyone brings up when Quidditch is mentioned."

"Well, because while you were in the hospital wing coughing up your punctured lung, Potter and his gang had it out for the entire Slytherin team, and I know that those Weasley twins tampered with our brooms in the following match," Draco announced, "plus Professor Snape threatened to suspend the entire team from school for barbaric sport policies, as if you flying into the Bludger was our fault."

"The Bludger flew into me!" Rachel protested vehemently.

"To be fair, you all did force her into trying out," Kerry came to her friend's defense.

"Only because-"

"Enough! Quidditch squabbles are absurd," Abigail groaned miserably just as the last dessert plates around them vanished.

"That's because it's a sport overrun with male testosterone and it would do it good to have cool and strategic female thinking added to it, instead of just being based on who can recruit the tallest, biggest players," Kerry declared firmly, nodding down the table where Marcus Flint sat in conversation with his two aforementioned Chasers, both exceedingly proficient in size.

Rachel laughed, high-fiving her friend, before rising from the table, beckoning her friends to follow her as they departed the Great Hall and proceeded to the Slytherin common room.


	2. II

"Mach, stop lying. I've seen you fly before, it's like everything you do, you're amazing at it when you want to be, and horrific at it when you don't want to be," Kerry commented to Rachel as they strolled out of the Slytherin common room before dawn, leaving the other girls asleep along with most of the castle. Flint had scheduled tryouts at sunrise, subject to the absurd mentality Quidditch captains possessed when it came to their team.

Rachel laughed quietly at her friend's comment in unspoken agreement, "Harry's content with sitting about looking for a glimpse of a tiny golden ball, to be honest I find that boring and would rather be more active in the game."

"Chasing," Kerry declared, "you'll be perfect for it."

The girls arrived at the Slytherin team locker room to find a tired hubbub of assorted Slytherins milling about. Frightened second-years stared around anxiously, clutching old broomsticks while a few veteran players yawned and stretched, snickering at the younger players. 

"Alright! Listen up everybody, if you're mad at being up so early, leave now! Everyone else, onto the field!" Flint shouted, lugging out the box containing the various Quidditch balls onto the pitch.

"You're actually doing this?" Rachel turned to find Draco Malfoy just behind her, his arm still in a sling because of the injury he'd received from Buckbeak the hippogriff a week earlier. He had stopped lamenting to her how much it hurt after she had bluntly informed him he brought it upon himself.

"No, I woke up this early to watch." He rolled his eyes at her sarcasm before she left him to join the group of Chasers.

"Alright, listen up, I'm not going easy on any of you, Slytherin house has high expectations for its Quidditch team and if you can't meet them then you can leave now," Flint glared around at the groups of potential Seekers, Beaters, Keepers, and Chasers. "We're starting with a game simulation, but just with Chasers for now, then we'll add in others until every position is being played." Flint turned to the group of Chasers, "Montague, Warrington, with me. We'll go up against...."

"Us," Kerry demanded loudly, causing Flint to toss her a dirty look.  
"Alright, since Carbone can't keep her mouth shut, Carbone, Mach, and Pucey."

"Pucey, come here," Kerry beckoned him towards her and Rachel as Flint busied himself with retrieving the Quaffle, "here's the plan, whoever gets the Quaffle first, give it to Mach and then just let her go. Sound good?"

"Er, what? That'll hardly work..." Pucey protested weakly, trailing off at the glare Kerry sent him.

"Mach, you ready?" she asked, brushing her dark curls out of her face and turning to her friend.

Rachel nodded, hoping she was as confident as her friend, before hoping onto her broom gracefully and kicking off into the air. The sudden weightlessness caused tingles racing down her spine. She shivered in excitement, all nervousness instantly lost with the thrill flying entailed. 

Flint handed the Quaffle off to one of the veteran players with the order to toss it up at his command, before jumping onto his broomstick and joining the opposing three along with Montague and Warrington, the two other Slytherin Chasers whom already had spots on the team.   
"Alright, we'll play just Chasers, once one side has scored three, we'll add Beaters, score six, add Keeper, clear? Good," Flint announced, before looking down, "toss it up!"  
The Quaffle was thrown into the circle of six hovering players. Kerry flew down immediately and retrieved it, before the more cumbersome Montague or Warrington could.   
"Mach!" She shouted, tossing the Quaffle over the incoming Flint's head towards where Rachel had been mirroring her friend's movements. Rachel caught it easily in her left hand then accelerated towards the opposing hoops, wind sending her auburn hair streaming out behind her.  
Montague and Warrington barreled towards her, but she deftly swerved down and around them without losing celerity. Flint dashed over, attempting to knock the Quaffle out of her hands. Instead she ducked, rolled three hundred and sixty degrees to her right, and continued onward. The agile move initiated sounds of awe from the groups of waiting Slytherins on the ground.  
Montague, Warrington, and Flint fruitlessly strived to overtake her and steal the Quaffle, but each time she either outstripped them in speed or danced away with another well timed move.

 

"Alright, alright, we get it!" Flint yelled across the pitch after Rachel had scored three consecutive goals in the same fashion.  
Rachel glided back from the goal posts to where Flint's team, Kerry, and Pucey had dismounted. Her return was met with a cheer from the crowd.  
"Bloody brilliant!"  
"Never seen anything like that!"  
"Saw one of Holyhead Harpies pull moves like that before-"  
"Did you see how she just feinted that time?"  
"Think Potter can fly like that?  
"Hell no-"  
"Quiet!" Flint roared to the chattering crowd, "Derrick, Bole, get the bats and Bludgers, Bletchley, guard our hoops," he turned to Kerry and Pucey, "stay on the ground, I want to see if Mach can fly like that in a game situation."  
"Bring it on, Flint," Rachel announced, tossing the Quaffle over to the crowd to be released.  
"Why didn't you fly like that last year?" He demanded angrily, looking as though she had just committed a heinous act of treachery in front of him.  
"Because you had me trying out for Seeker. And Seeking is boring," she told him before hopping back on her broom and kicking off, "I'll see the Bludgers this time."  
Flint, Montague, and Warrington followed her.   
"I'll be nice and let you start with the Quaffle," Flint told her, motioning at the crowd to release it.  
"Oh, why thank you, Flint, that's ever so kind," her sarcasm was unrestricted, but Flint never had a chance to respond, as she caught the released Quaffle and had already darted past the group of three Chasers.   
Flint swore loudly before turning his broom to chase after her. He'd never seen anyone fly as agile as she was, and on a school broom too. He wondered if she'd enchanted the broom, before remembering the school brooms were already enchanted as to not be tampered with.

Beaters Derrick and Bole had released the Bludgers, and had whacked one in Rachel's general direction... or at least thought they had, as her speed outmatched the Bludger and it sailed harmlessly across the pitch, with Rachel long past. The other chased her down on it's own accord. A blur in the corner of her eye signaled its approach, and with a dexterous dodge it whistled past. The Slytherins watching cheered distantly, muffled by the wind in her ears.  
The Keeper, Bletchley, hovered in and out of the hoops, watching her approach keenly.  
She dodged once more as another Bludger whistled past her, before slowing, darting towards the right hoop, Bletchley mirrored her movement. She faked a throw, causing Bletchley to dart forward in response to stop the throw. But she swerved to the left with a sudden increase in speed and tossed the Quaffle in the middle goal before Bletchley had recovered from the feint.

"Bletchley you let her score!" Flint bellowed as he caught up to Rachel as soon as the Quaffle sailed through the hoop.

"She feinted!" He protested furiously.

"Incoming!" Rachel warned, rolling adroitly on her broomstick as a Bludger sailed by. Flint ducked just in time before roaring at Derrick and Bole to put the Bludgers away.

"I've decided," Flint announced gleefully to Rachel as they flew back down to the ground where the crowd of Slytherins were cheering her name, "to... unfreeze my roster selections. I want you as Chaser with me and Montague. We'll swap out Warrington as needed, and I suppose I'll call on Carbone to play if we really need her."

"I told you Seeking was boring," Rachel laughed as they landed on the ground. Kerry ran up to her beaming. "Mach that was amazing!"

"It's easy I suppose," Rachel responded sardonically as the group of Slytherin clustered around her, asking where she had learned to fly that well and gloating over how she flew "better than Potter".

"Clear out! All of you! Tryouts are over, roster will be posted in the common room soon," Flint announced to the group, "and if I hear any of you loudmouths gloating to the school about Mach flying, I'll cut out your tongue!"  
Flint strolled over to Rachel, eyes glinting, "see Mach, here's the plan, we keep quiet about you as our latest acquisition, a surprise if you will," he draped an arm across her shoulders and steered her towards the Slytherin locker room. "Now, Malfoy here," he gestured at Draco, who followed them closely, "is unfortunately injured. We can't play a game without a Seeker. So we're deferring the game to Gryffindor, so they play Hufflepuff first. Which means we play Ravenclaw later - your opening game. Ravenclaw's got a strong team this year, but even so, we'll blow them away, that is, if what you just did wasn't some sort of fluke," he looked down at her suspiciously.

"Oh, never," she replied with only a hint of sarcasm which Flint ignored.

"Good. Practice every day up until then. After we destroy Ravenclaw, now Gryffindor and Hufflepuff will be petrified, which will cause them to play viciously or horribly respectively-"

"-thus, we capitalize, and win the Cup," Rachel finished his ambitious plan.

"Exactly!"


	3. III

"Oh no!" Hermione groaned as her book bag split and quite a few heavy books tumbled to the floor.  
"Here, let me," Rachel announced, catching up to the trio who had fled what had been a miserable double Potions class for Gryffindor. With a wave of her wand, Hermione's bag was repaired with all its contents safely inside.  
"Have you tried a Strengthening and Lightening Charm?" Rachel asked her rhetorically, with another wave.   
"Well, no, I haven't, I should have thought of that," Hermione admitted sheepishly, adjusting her bag which was now much less weighty.   
"Say, why do you even have all those books anyways, don't we only have Defense-"  
Ron trailed off when Hermione mumbled something incoherent and rushed off into the Great Hall.  
"Leave her," Rachel advised him, falling into pace with Harry and Ron, "wasn't that a lovely Potions class?"  
The two boys groaned.  
"For Slytherin yeah because Snape plays favorites worse than anybody," Ron raged furiously, still irate about being forced to play subservient to Malfoy, who conveniently was unable to do anything because of his injured arm.  
"Malfoy's arm isn't actually hurt as bad as he makes it out to be," Harry declared.  
"I know, but you know how he is," Rachel nodded with an eye roll, "it's his fault anyway."  
"Mach! I'm offended!" the group turned to find Draco, along with Crabbe and Goyle heading towards the Great Hall.  
"Piss off, Malfoy," Ron snapped.  
"Watch your mouth, Weasley," Draco glared as he and his group pushed past them, "Mach, are you coming with us or them?"  
Rachel sighed inaudibly. The perpetual feud between the two houses exhausted her. She was always being forced to pick a side, choose a house, decide between friends or family. Gryffindor collectively argued that blood was thicker than water, therefore she ought to choose Harry, and choosing him was equivalent to choosing Gryffindor when a clash occurred. Slytherin argued that house bonds transcended all else, and, seeing, as Gryffindor ignorantly used the blood and water proverb wrong, argued that the blood of the covenant was thicker than the water of the womb.

"Actually I've got to run to talk to Professor Flitwick about an essay right now, I'll see you all later," she lied smoothly, extricating herself from the situation with a nod to both parties, and turning on her heel to retreat down the hall.

 

The September sun was warm on the grounds, mistakable for summer until the chilly autumn breeze betrayed it. Rachel strolled over to a lone tree on the otherwise deserted grounds, a place she habitually frequented, a favorite because of the panoramic view of the grounds from its spot.   
Securing her bag on her shoulder, she skillfully hopped up the lower branches to settle on one of the thicker branches of the tree, about five feet from the ground. Resting her back against the thick bark of the trunk, she pulled out the morning's copy of the Daily Prophet from her bag. Again, the threatening face of Sirius Black stared out from the front page, with various captions announcing the latest reward for information, the latest spotting, the latest defense taken by the Ministry.  
Rachel stared at the glaring face on the front page. Before the school year had begun Mr. Weasley had begged her and Harry not to do anything rash and to be careful during the school year. The only rash thing Rachel had really wanted to do was fight all the dementors stationed about the school. Even though they patrolled the edges of the school's grounds, for some reason she was perpetually aware of their presence no matter how far away they were. Occasionally flashes of dread would slice through her, and memories she had long ago suppressed would float their way to the surface and leave her breathless and terrified. 

A chill went through her as she stared at the bitter face of Sirius Black on the front of the Prophet. She shivered, because beneath the decay of Azkaban, lay something disturbingly familiar. Rachel closed her eyes, struggling to remember, the memory buried under the passing of years and the temporal conditions of childhood.

 

"Where's my favorite godchildren?" a young, dark-haired man poked his head into a room where one-year old Harry was racing around his sister and a small kitten on a miniature broomstick, causing Rachel to scream at him and the kitten to leap up in attempt to knock him off the broom.  
At the announcement the two twins stopped and ran towards him shouting at the top of their lungs, "Uncle Sirius!"

 

A rugged barking sound jolted Rachel as she opened her eyes, blinking in the bright sunlight. She looked down to see a mangy black dog looking up at her and barking furiously. In amusement she noticed it resembled the mysterious "Grim" creature Harry was obsessed with after Professor Trelawney claimed she saw death in Harry's soggy tea leaves. Her brother took the class far too seriously. Rachel almost wished she had taken Divination for the entertainment aspect of it.

"Oh shut up," she said irritably to the barking dog as she hopped down from the tree branch. To her confusion it ceased barking momentarily and fixed her with a beady stare before resuming barking.   
Rachel rolled her eyes and ignored it as she hurried back towards the castle, already late for Defense Against the Dark Arts.   
The dog followed her without ceasing its barking.  
"What do you want?" Rachel turned to snap at it, feeling somewhat ridiculous for talking to a dog, but last year she'd encountered man-eating spiders in the Forbidden Forest with Ron and Harry, as well as a giant snake that had to be over one thousand years old in a Chamber that wasn't supposed to exist, so yelling at a scruffy looking dog didn't seem too far fetched.  
The dog lunged forward and grasped the copy of the Daily Prophet she still carried in her hand. She immediately released her hold, and the dog latched onto it before turning tail and running off. She stared after it in confusion before realizing how late she was for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

 

*****************************

 

  
"Where've you been?" Harry hissed to Rachel as she entered the staff room moments after Snape had exited.  
"Doing stuff," she responded monotonously, then eyeing what seemed to be a staring match between Neville Longbottom and a shuddering wardrobe, "what's going on?"  
"Boggarts," Harry informed her, "they take the shape of-"  
"of what you fear the most," Rachel finished, nodding her head knowledgeably.  
Harry looked at her, "you know you could give Hermione a run for her money."  
"If I wanted to, you mean?"  
"Yeah, of course."

They turned their attention back to the class, where Professor Lupin had just asked them all to think of what scared them the most. Rachel watched the class collectively close their eyes and grimace. Next to her, Harry inhaled sharply, and when she looked at him an image of a black-cloaked figure swooped into her mind. Dementors, she thought. Her twin's worst fear was fear itself.  
Rachel looked away from him and scanned the class quickly, everyone seemed to have an image of their worst fear on their mind. She turned to the task herself and found she couldn't quite think of anything.   
The wardrobe shuddered again, rocking on the floor. Rachel stared at it coldly. Professor Lupin called on Neville, whom quickly transformed his boggart of a menacing Snape into an outfitted Snape with his grandmother's clothes.  
Rachel watched as multiple other Gryffindors stepped forward to face the boggart. For each it transformed into something banally frightening. As the group moved forward, she subtly left Harry's side and settled to watch from the back of the group, not because she was afraid of facing the boggart, what terrified her was that she genuinely did not know what the boggart would transform into if she were to face it.

She watched closely as the boggart landed in front of Harry, who looked determined to face it. Instead Professor Lupin jumped forward, causing the boggart to focus on him instead. It flashed into a shining silver orb, Rachel recognized it immediately as a full moon, although the looks of confusion from the others in the class told her they didn't.  
Rachel stared at Professor Lupin, now encouraging Neville to finish off the boggart, who did so gladly. Her eyes ran across the scars marring his countenance, the lean figure, the emotion ever-hidden in the back of his eyes. Something stirred at the back of her mind but before she could delve into it and explore, the hubbub of the class distracted her.  
"Did you see me destroy it?" Ron announced excitedly, "wish all spiders could be taken care of like that!"  
"Yeah, pretty cool," Harry replied dully.  
Rachel looked sharply at her twin, obviously upset he wasn't allowed to face the boggart.  
"What?" he asked her, noticing her look.  
"Well, isn't it obvious?"  
"What's obvious?"  
"Nevermind," she shook her head in irritation, dropping the subject as Ron's gleeful gloating resumed.


	4. IV

"Mach, plan on coming with us on the first Hogsmeade visit? Stock up on Zonko's merch?" George Weasley asked after furiously beckoning her over to the Gryffindor table at breakfast one weekend in mid October.  
"No, Harry couldn't get his permission slip signed, so I'm staying with him so he's not miserable alone," Rachel responded, sliding into the seat across the twins. She had gotten Aunt Petunia, who was rather fond of Rachel, to sign the slip immediately after she and Harry had returned from Hogwarts for the summer. Harry, rather, had waited until the worst possible time to ask Uncle Vernon, and had blown his chance when he lost his temper at Aunt Marge. Rachel later told Harry that her triumph and his failure was the reason she was in Slytherin and he was in Gryffindor. He'd been annoyed about it ever since. 

"Pity," Fred and George said simultaneously.  
"I'll give you a list and some Galleons for what I need of course," she informed them slyly.  
They grinned widely, "of course!"  
"By the way, Mach," George began, voice dropping, "we've been hearing rumors that you're the newest Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team. Can you confirm?"  
Rachel laughed, "yes, I can confirm that Slytherin is spreading lies about our Quidditch team to confuse Gryffindor yet again, if that clears it up."  
"Very much so, we thank you," Fred laughed, "Wood threw a temper tantrum at practice the other day over a rumor someone told him that you can fly better than the English and Irish national teams put together."  
"Only better than two national teams?" Rachel asked sarcastically, "I'm upset, I thought at least three. Tell Wood he needs to relax, it's just Quidditch."  
"Just Quidditch?" the twins sounded highly offended.  
Rachel took this as her cue to leave, grabbing an unread copy of the Daily Prophet and heading towards the Slytherin table. She seated herself among Kerry, Abigail, and Sadie.

"Gryffindor interrogating you again?" Sadie asked, with a nod over towards the table from which Rachel had just come from.  
"Quidditch tactics. Someone probably let something slip," she responded, glancing over towards where Flint sat, arguing with Warrington. Of all people Flint had threatened, the captain himself had the hardest time keeping his mouth shut in front of Wood and the Gryffindor team that his Potter was certainly no match for Gryffindor's beloved Seeker.  
"You destroyed it though, right," Abigail questioned was stated.  
"Of course I did," Rachel laughed, helping herself to toast and marmalade.  
"I can't wait for the first game," Kerry groaned, "it's going to be so fun."  
"What's your timing at now?" Sadie asked Rachel. Flint's latest obsession was timing how quickly she could score after being handed the Quaffle.  
"Dunno, I forget," Rachel said. She didn't pay much attention to the timing, instead enjoying the sensation of flying rather than a random statistic.  
"I think it's just over twelve seconds," Kerry announced, "Flint wants it at at least ten."

"Carbone, if you could not spew out confidential team information," Flint, who had just passed them on his way out had overheard, "that would be great."  
"Of course," Kerry's response was full of unmitigated sarcasm.

 

*******************************

 

The autumn air was bitingly cold the night before Halloween, as Rachel Potter exited the castle and headed towards her usual frequented tree at twilight.   
As she had expected, the large black dog sat under it, awaiting her arrival. For weeks the same dog had appeared at her spot whenever she arrived, and barked until she had given it the day's copy of the Daily Prophet. She hadn't the least idea why the dog was so obsessed with newspapers, only that to her the dog seemed strangely familiar, another memory she couldn't quite retain for long enough to make sense of it.   
The dog stood, furiously wagging its tail and barking at her arrival.  
"Shh! You're so loud!" she hissed at it in irritation before reaching into her bag and tossing it this morning's copy of the Prophet. The dog caught the paper in its jaws, spun in an excited circle, before racing off into the fast approaching darkness. 

 

**********************************

 

"Fortuna Major," Rachel said to the portrait of the Fat Lady. It was mid-morning Halloween and she'd promised to meet Harry in the Gryffindor common room while the rest of third year frolicked through Hogsmeade, buying as much Honeydukes' sweets as they could carry.  
The Fat Lady blearily opened her eyes, catching sight of Rachel's robes before closing them again, "you're a Slytherin, how do you know the password?"  
"It's Mach," Rachel told her.  
"Oh, you. Your brother just left, and woke me up doing so, just like you did," she grumbled in annoyance.  
"Where did he go?"  
"How am I supposed to know?"  
Rachel left the portrait to her sleepy irritation, turning to her instincts to find out where her twin had gone.

Instincts led her towards Professor Lupin's office, where she encountered Professor Snape about to enter, holding a steaming goblet.  
"Miss Potter, what are you doing here?" Snape questioned slowly.  
Rachel sniffed the air, "what are you doing carrying Wolfsbane..." she trailed off, staring first at Snape, then at the door to Professor Lupin's office.  
Snape's smirk was practically triumphant as he watched realization dawn over Rachel's face.  
"I knew it," Rachel announced as she knocked and then opened the door to Lupin's office.  
"Knew what?" came the query from Professor Lupin as she entered.  
"That Harry would be here," she said smoothly, looking at her twin who indeed was sitting in the room; although Snape's smirk almost betrayed her before it disappeared upon sighting Harry.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked Harry while Lupin and Snape discussed the potion.  
"What are you doing here?" Harry retorted, eyeing the exchange between the professors.  
"I'm here because you're here, you said meet at the Gryffindor common room, and you weren't there," she said accusingly, as Snape departed the office with a sharp look around the room. 

"Funny both Potters should end up in my office today," Lupin chimed in cheerfully, "neither of you up to the Hogsmeade trip today?"  
"Not Harry," Rachel laughed, "I only stayed because he'd be miserable by himself. But obviously he'd rather not spend time with me. But I'd best be going now. Hope your potion helps, Professor." She smiled broadly as she approached the door to leave.  
Before exiting she turned quickly, "by the way Professor, I think there's a blue moon next month."  
She watched Lupin pale suddenly, while Harry looked bewildered, before turning heel and heading out of the office.


	5. V

"Flint, we're missing the feast!" Bletchley shouted across the pitch from where he hovered, guarding the goal posts.The air was heavy with an approaching storm, and lightning flickered over the mountains on the horizon.

"He's right," Rachel pulled her broom to a stop next to Flint. He'd insisted on keeping the team late, but allowing the substitutes and non-essential players to leave. Nevertheless, they had loyally insisted on staying on the pitch, watching their teammates from the ground.  
"We've got to practice!" he barked at her, tossing the Quaffle at her, "now go score! Montague, Bole, Derrick, chase her down. I'm timing you! Go!"  
Rachel unleashed a furious glare at his direction, green eyes accentuated by the green of her Quidditch robes, before catching the Quaffle and darting towards the goal.

When she returned, Flint caught the Quaffle she tossed him and held up his timer, "eleven point seven seconds. When you can score in ten, we'll be done."  
Rachel snarled furiously, just as lightning flashed, illuminating the field, outlining the waiting figures of their teammates on the ground. She snatched the Quaffle from him and tore across the field enraged. Zipping across the field, instinctively, she dodged Warrington, then Montague, spinning from the Bludgers Derrick and Bole sent her way, she ripped the Quaffle past Bletchley before he had time to react.   
She flew downwards, catching the Quaffle before it hit the ground and flew quickly back towards Flint.  
Rachel hurled the Quaffle at Flint, who just managed to catch it before it rammed him full in the ribs.  
"Well?" she demanded as lightning flashed again, this time thunder matched it, booming loudly, sending shock waves across the field.  
"Ten point eight, but Warrington and Montague weren't trying!" Flint roared over the noise of the storm.  
"Is that good enough for you, o' Captain?" she shouted back as lightning branched across the sky above them.  
"Well that depends-"  
"Shut up and let's get out of here!" Bletchley bellowed, flying past them towards the ground. Thunder boomed once more, vibrating the air itself.

"Finally! Let's go!" Kerry screamed when all players had dismounted. The team streaked off the pitch as fast as they could just as the storm broke and torrential rain began.  
Rachel became acutely aware of something following the team off the field and then into the castle. A few glances over her shoulder revealed nothing, only once she thought she recognized the black dog from the grounds, but it quickly slipped her mind as the team bustled up towards the Great Hall, casting aside their irritation when the festive noises of the feast could be heard.  
"I'm telling you, Wood thinks Gryffindor's got the best team this year," Flint gloated, "but guess how many times they're practicing a week."  
"How many?" Draco asked, laughter on the edges of his voice.  
"Three," Flint broke down into laughter, "developing a real dream team!" the team shouted with laughter while Rachel rolled her eyes at the mockery.

The team entered the Great Hall together, where the feast had already begun. Slytherin table hailed their arrival joyously, and Flint practically dragged Rachel with him to sit in the tight cluster of zealous Slytherin Quidditch enthusiasts after she attempted to part with the group and head towards the Gryffindor table.

"I'm not saying anything," Flint announced gleefully to the group sworn to secrecy concerning the updates Flint gave them on the team that clustered about them when they settled at the table, "but guess."  
"She did it?" a seventh year Quidditch aficionado asked eagerly, "ten seconds?"  
Flint smirked, "ten point eight." The group let out gasps of awe before each congratulating Rachel in turn.  
"That beats the record by any former Slytherin Chaser by over point-three seconds!" the seventh year stated breathlessly, shaking Rachel's hand vigorously.

"Yes, yes," Rachel quieted the group with a raised hand, "now it just needs to be done in an actual game, where it will actually count."

 

*********************************

 

"Have either of you seen Rach?" Harry asked Fred and George when the Halloween feast had commenced that night.  
"Who? Oh, Mach? No," George responded, glancing over at the Slytherin table, "but I don't see any of her Sidekicks over there either."  
"Weird," Harry muttered. Rachel loved the Halloween feast.

"Wait, here they come now," Fred commented, nodding towards the entrance where a gang of Slytherins had just entered, chattering among each other energetically.  
"Looks suspiciously like the Quidditch team, don't you think?" George commented, "Oi, Wood, you seeing this?"   
Down the table, Wood followed George's glance and frowned, "Flint's up to something, I just know it."  
Hermione rolled her eyes from where she sat, muttering something about how sports team always found conspiracies in the simplest things.

 

It wasn't until the feast ended and the respective tables began to depart for their dormitories did Rachel have the chance to extricate herself from the crowd of Slytherins crowing over her to themselves to meet up with Harry.  
"Hey, are you okay?" she asked him quietly, falling into step beside him, Ron, and Hermione as they headed towards the Gryffindor common room.  
Harry looked at her oddly, "yeah, why wouldn't I be?"  
"Dunno," Rachel frowned, "I just, feel weird all of a sudden, like something's happened. Thought it might be related to you," she murmured the last part quietly. The twins had had more than a few occasions of the mythical twin connection, where one had physically felt or known something that the other had. When Harry had broken his arm and had its bones subsequently removed by Gilderoy Lockhart, Rachel's own arm had felt numb and tingly. When she had taken the Bludger to the ribs that year as well, breaking her ribs and puncturing a lung, Harry had been weak and unable to catch his breath for over an hour.   
"Well, no, nothing's happened," Harry responded, looking at her worriedly.  
"Take that back, something has happened," Ron announced, as the group approached the Fat Lady to find a large group of Gryffindors milling about in confusion and fear.  
Percy Weasley pushed through the crowd irritably, approaching the portrait, before ordering someone to find Professor Dumbledore.  
"What's going on?" Hermione asked, trying to see over the crowd. When Dumbledore arrived upon the chaotic scene, the group of them moved closer to survey the sight.   
The portrait of the Fat Lady had been ripped to shreds, with the Fat Lady herself disappeared.  
Rachel inhaled sharply upon seeing the scene, mind suddenly tossed back to the feeling she had gotten of something following her and the Slytherin Quidditch team when they had come in from the pitch.  
"I've got to go, I- I forgot something down near the pitch," Rachel mumbled, barely loud enough for Harry to hear.  
"What?" he turned to ask, but she had already dashed away through the crowd of Gryffindors.   
The insidious cackling of Peeves echoed in her ears, "nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."


	6. Chapter 6

Rachel's mind was reeling, gears turning, engines steaming, trying to make two and two equal to four. She raced down to the Quidditch pitch, retracing the footsteps the team had taken just hours ago. She was acting on instinct, her brain not quite sure why it made sense to her.  
"-nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black-" Peeves cackle echoed in her mind, swimming with it, the image of the destroyed portrait. Along with it, memories, voices, and images of the past.   
As she ran, she remembered.   
"Padfoot!" and an image of a scruffy black dog.  
"James! Sirius!" and a glimpse of two young men, laughing and joking.  
"The only thing left of Pettigrew was-"

Rachel came to a sudden halt outside of the locker rooms, breathing heavily, and abruptly aware of retreating footsteps ahead of her, heading down towards where the tunnel led out onto the Quidditch field.  
She illuminated her wand, casting light down the tunnel. She found she wasn't surprised to see the large black dog backed against the door to the pitch, locked after the Slytherin team had come in, growling threateningly at her.   
Rachel stared at the dog for a moment, before aiming her wand in its direction. In response, the dog crouched lower, snarling menacingly.   
With a flick of her wand the door unlocked itself and opened, leading out of the castle and into the storm.   
"Hurry!" she urged in a low voice.  
The dog heeded her words, turning tail and darting out the ajar door.  
Rachel quickly closed it before rushing up into the main corridors of the castle, quickly blending in with a crowd of students being herded towards the Great Hall.

 

"Where have you been?" Harry demanded, as she dragged a purple sleeping bag over into the corner where Harry, Ron, and Hermione lay.  
"I told you, I left something down near the pitch," Rachel responded quickly.  
"Sirius Black is in the castle and you felt the need to wander off?" Hermione asked, astonished.  
"I wasn't wandering off, I knew where I was going," Rachel retorted irritably. Gryffindors were so dense sometimes.  
"Why were you down the pitch anyways?" Harry said brusquely, eyes flashing.  
"Why are you so angry?" she growled back.  
"Quiet over there!" Percy Weasley snapped at the group, just as the lights were extinguished throughout the hall, plunging the collected mass of students into darkness. Rachel looked over towards where Harry was, seeing only a glint of his eyes staring at her searchingly through the gloom.

 

***********************************

 

Naturally the whole school talked of nothing else for a week, the tale was repeated and twisted so many times that most everyone had forgotten what had actually happened.   
The Fat Lady had been replaced as guardian to Gryffindor tower, and Sir Cadogan, a pugnacious and rather obnoxious knight filled her spot, whom no one seemed to like. Once, when Rachel had been attempting to enter the Gryffindor common room to visit Harry and the others, something which she did often, he had brazenly challenged her to a duel and refused to let her enter until she accepted. So she had and immediately performed a neat little spell which had caused both his horse and sword to shrink in size until it was impossible for either to be of any use to him. Infuriated he had shouted about the lack of decency in the art of dueling nowadays and still refused to let her enter, until Ron had opened the portrait from the inside, confused to what all the noise was.   
Rachel had left him with both miniature horse and sword, and no one had bothered to reverse the spell for a week, which enraged him but delighted Gryffindor house, all of whom hated Sir Cadogan with a passion.

 

"Have teachers been following you around everywhere?" Harry asked Rachel one afternoon while she was visiting them in the Gryffindor common room.   
"Yes!" she groaned, tossing an unused bit of parchment into the roaring fireplace in the common room, "all the time."  
"Probably because of Black right?" he muttered under his breath. His sister nodded in response, flashing a quick eye roll.

"Oh here you are, Harry," Percy Weasley's voice caused them both to turn, "oh, and you too, Mach. Professor McGonagall wishes to see both of you in her office, now."  
"Why?" Rachel asked, only to receive a shrug from Percy. She looked at Harry, who seemed equally confused.  
The twins exited the common room, to have Sir Cadogan shout at them as they departed. He despised Rachel with a passion ever since the duel incident.

"When's the first Quidditch game?" Rachel asked innocently as they traversed the castle towards McGonagall's office.  
"Saturday," he replied, grinning, "against Slytherin."  
"Oh?" she raised an eyebrow, "who should I cheer for then?"  
"Me, of course," Harry laughed as they knocked on McGonagall's office door.

"You wanted to see us, Professor?" Harry asked as they entered.  
"Yes, yes," McGonagall said, beckoning them to sit while looking solemn, "there's no point in hiding it from you two any more, but Sirius Black-"  
"is after us, we know," Rachel finished coolly. McGonagall looked stunned.  
"We heard Ron's dad telling his mum. Mr. Weasley works for the Ministry," Harry explained.  
"Plus did you really expect me not to find out?" Rachel added with a brisk laugh.   
McGonagall looked at her coldly before continuing, "very well, I see. However, Mr. Potter, you now ought to understand why I believe it is not a good idea for you to be practicing Quidditch on evenings, on the exposed field with only teammates-"  
"But Professor! We've got to practice! Our first game is Saturday!" Harry seethed at the thought of Quidditch being taken away from him.  
McGonagall studied him closely before stating that she would ask Madam Hooch to oversee Gryffindor's team practices.  
"Oh and Miss Potter, I've heard rumors that you are flying for the Slytherin Quidditch team this year?" McGonagall asked her intently.   
"Yes, I've heard the same rumors too, Professor," Rachel grinned, "did you know I can fly better than both the Irish and British national teams?"  
McGonagall cracked a thin smile, "good. If you don't mind me saying, but I wouldn't want Gryffindor's chances at the Cup in jeopardy this year."

 

******************************

 

"You're late," Rachel observed as she ran into her twin coming from the opposite direction outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.  
"So're you!" Harry retorted, "Wood's driving me mental with Quidditch tips about Hufflepuff, seeing as Slytherin backed out of the game."  
"We didn't back out, our Seeker-"  
"-is fine!"  
"I hope you enjoy playing in this miserable weather tomorrow!"  
In response, Harry yanked the door open and stormed into the classroom, apologizing to Professor Lupin for his tardiness. Rachel followed after him and smirked at Harry's apparent astonishment to find Professor Snape taking over for Lupin today.  
"This lesson began ten minutes ago, Potter, so I think we'll make it ten points from Gryffindor. Sit down."  
Rachel snickered and sarcastically saluted Snape, who elected to ignore her and aim his venom at Harry. The apparent favoritism Snape exhibited towards Rachel never failed to irritate her twin.

"Where's Professor Lupin?" Harry demanded, staring at Snape while Rachel smoothly glided into her seat.  
"He claims he is feeling too ill to teach today. Now I believe I told you to sit down?"  
Naturally, Harry didn't move. "What's wrong with him?"  
"Nothing life-threatening," Snape hissed, "five more points from Gryffindor, and if I have to ask you to sit down again, it will be fifty."  
Harry irritably sat down, glaring over at his sister, who was smirking at him widely while Snape flicked through the textbook, deriding Professor Lupin's teaching style, causing the Gryffindors to loyally defend their favorite teacher.  
"Today we shall be discussing... werewolves," Snape announced coldly, looking around the room.  
Rachel let out an audible laugh, causing Snape to send her a faint smirk while Hermione protested in vain.

The class grudgingly turned to page three hundred and ninety four while Snape queried the class over distinguishing between a werewolf and a true wolf, blatantly ignoring Hermione's eagerly raised hand.  
"Please, sir, the werewolf differs from the true wolf-"  
"That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger. Five points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all," Snape announced smoothly.  
Collectively all Gryffindors in the room turned to glare at Snape furiously. Regardless of how true a statement was, Gryffindors never appreciated hearing it from someone whom they despised, Rachel observed with amusement, once more trying to contain her laughter. Gryffindor regularly ignored her unforgiving laughter to Snape's remarks at the expense of Gryffindor house.

 

"Why did you and Snape seem like you're both in on some secret?" Harry fumed after the class was over, Snape having assigned them an extensive essay on how to identify and kill werewolves, as well as giving Ron detention for his outburst in defense of Hermione.  
"What are you talking about?" Rachel questioned innocently.  
"You didn't stop laughing the whole class like you had some inside joke with Snape."  
"Dunno what you're talking about," Rachel told him, "but I'm not writing your essay for you like last time."   
"But it's two scrolls of parchment!"  
"Why would I want to write four then?" she grinned at him, "good luck at the game tomorrow, hope the weather isn't too bad." She flashed him a smile before leaving for the Slytherin common room.


	7. VII

"Ah, it's a pity my arm is still injured," Draco Malfoy signed dramatically at the Slytherin table, "imagine playing in this weather though? Awful!" The rain pounded the windows of the Great Hall as if in agreement.  
Rachel Potter rolled her eyes at him as she returned from the Gryffindor table. (How he managed to get away with his injured arm excuse for so long was beyond her.) Flint had sent her over to the Gryffindor table in an attempt to unsuspectingly gauge Gryffindor's Quidditch strategy for the match that day against Hufflepuff. Wood, however, wasn't taking any chances and had ordered the team not to speak a word to her, Harry included.   
Thus she returned to the Slytherin table, discreetly shaking her head at Flint, who scowled in annoyance.

"Why didn't they just cancel the game?" Sadie asked as Rachel sat next to her and the other Sidekicks.  
"It's just a little storm," Rachel snorted derisively.  
"Just a little storm?" Abigail raised her eyebrows as thunder shook the castle.  
"Yes," Rachel responded shortly, "minuscule."

 

*************************

 

"This is horrible!" Hermione shouted over the roaring wind. Her, Ron, and Rachel were huddled under an umbrella in the stands on the Quidditch pitch, barely able to even see the happenings of the game through the rainy murk of the storm.  
"This is Quidditch!" Ron shouted back.

"What's happening now?" Hermione asked in confusion as the red and yellow shapes glided towards the ground.  
"I think they called a time out," Rachel responded, peering through the rain, "do you think Harry was smart enough to enchant his glasses so he can see?"  
Hermione groaned, "No! Of course not! Let's go!" she handed the umbrella to Ron then turned and charged down from the stands towards the ground. Rachel followed on her heels, holding her green Slytherin cloak over her head against the wind and rain.

"Harry! We've had an idea!" Hermione announced, as the two girls approached the Gryffindor team, "give me your glasses!"  
Harry unquestioningly handed them over.  
"Mach, what's the spell?" Hermione asked breathlessly.  
"Impervius," Rachel responded immediately, "it'll repel water."  
Hermione tapped Harry's glasses with her wand and repeated the spell.  
"Brilliant!" Wood was delighted, "okay team, let's go!" Gryffindor team took to the air again as the two girls disappeared back into the stands.

"Look's like Diggory and Harry have seen the Snitch!" Ron told them excitedly when they returned.  
"Oh?" Hermione excitedly jumped up and down to see better.

Rachel, rather, let out a pained gasp as knives of dread unexpectedly slashed into her, causing her to fall to her knees heavily.  
"Mach? Mach!"   
The voices blurred in her ears as she was struck with a sudden attack of vertigo. Her surroundings spun about her widely. Somewhere she heard screaming-  
"Rachel! NO-"  
"Not Harry-"  
"- please!"  
"Avada-"  
Then laughter, screaming, roaring, howling, shouting, all blurring into one as darkness conquered.

 

"Mach!"   
Rachel opened her eyes, blinking furiously to focus on her surroundings. It seemed as though half the school was sitting or standing about her.   
"Back off everyone, give her room to breathe, damn," she recognized Kerry's voice from somewhere.  
She sat up, head pounding, and recognized the hospital wing. A large majority of Slytherins were gathered about her, the entire Quidditch team, the Sidekicks, Malfoy and his gang, and more. All dripping water and mud on the floor. Directly across the wing was a sea of red and golds, as the Gryffindor team and many others were gathered around another bed. 

"What the bloody hell is going on?" she demanded, looking around in confusion. Everyone around her exchanged glances.  
"Well," Kerry began, "to put it shortly, about a hundred dementors showed up at the Quidditch match. It was kind of chaotic, and at some point you collapsed and fainted, while Potter fell off his broom from fifty feet."  
"And Hufflepuff won," Flint added.  
Rachel stared into space, trying to remember but it all blended together into confusion and pain, before leaping out of the bed and attempting to fight her way through the crowd of Slytherins towards the red and gold on the other side.  
She was pushed back down into the bed immediately by Kerry and Abigail.  
"Is Harry alright?" she demanded furiously.  
"Yeah, Potter's fine," Sadie responded.

"All right, out! Everyone out!" Madam Pomfrey's voice echoed in the wing, "everyone, now!"  
The large group of Slytherins dispersed reluctantly until the wing was empty. Rachel looked across the room towards where her brother sat on a bed, miserably staring down at a pile of twigs Hermione had just dumped onto the bed.

"Is that your Nimbus?" she asked loudly. The trio turned to her.  
"Rach!? What happened to you?" Harry gaped, evidently previously unaware of presence due to the large crowd earlier.  
Ron and Hermione shifted nervously.  
"Dunno," Rachel responded, looking at Ron and Hermione pointedly.  
"Well, er, you sort of blacked out in the stands just as the dementors showed up and Harry fell," Ron began slowly.  
"Thrilling," Rachel replied sarcastically, "who was screaming?"  
"Well, er, a lot of people really, I mean, there were hundreds of dementors."  
"No, no someone else was screaming, and laughing, and..." she trailed off at the expressions on the group's faces. Ron and Hermione looked pale and confused, while Harry was giving her a knowing stare. He slowly nodded, as if to inform her that he also had heard what she had heard.


	8. VIII

"Mach, what the bloody hell is this?" Flint pulled her over to the Slytherin table in the Great Hall to where a large cluster of Slytherins sat. It was Monday morning, and both Rachel and Harry welcomed the busyness of the normal school day after having been in the hospital wing all weekend.  
"What?" she asked, confused, before she noticed what the group was circling around. A long, thin package lay on the table. Her black and silver cat, Nyx, lounged across it, hissing at the group.  
"Oh," Rachel laughed, "I bought myself a Firebolt. Because I hate the school broomsticks."  
Flint's jaw dropped, "you what?"  
"You heard me," she responded, sliding in-between two Slytherins in the group to inspect the package. Sure enough, it was the Firebolt she had put an order in for a few weeks back. Without telling Harry of course, or the Quidditch team, or anyone for that matter.

Flint was in ecstasies, "forget scoring in ten seconds, I'm thinking at least seven with this!"  
"How are we going to get it out of here without Gryffindor noticing?" Kerry slid into the group.  
"Easy," Rachel responded. Coaxing her cat, Nyx, away from the package, she tapped it lightly with her wand, and it disappeared from sight.  
"Mach! What've you done?" Flint gaped at the empty spot on the table where the wrapped Firebolt had just lain.   
"It's still there," Rachel snickered, "invisibility charm."  
"Oh, of course."  
"Now, a bunch of you walk with me," Rachel ordered, flicking her wand at where the invisible broomstick lay, levitating it carefully. She quickly hide her wand in the sleeve of her robe while maintaining its aim at the package. "Let's go," she announced, getting up from the table. Several other Slytherins followed her, crowding about her to avert suspicion.

The group successfully made it out of the Great Hall without attracting unwanted attention. By the time they had reached the lower corridors near the Slytherin common room, Rachel dropped both charms and carried the Firebolt to the safety of her dorm. 

 

********************************

 

"Draco, stop," Rachel growled under her breath as Draco did yet another imitation of a dementor.  
"I'm just having a bit of fun, Mach," he muttered back, before sending a smirk at her brother who was glaring at him from across the Potions classroom, not amused by his mocking of the dementor incident at the Quidditch match.  
"It wasn't even funny the first three times," she hissed to him over her cauldron.  
"It was hilarious," Draco responded, turning to her after doing one more dementor imitation. Before she could respond, a wet crocodile heart hit Draco directly in the face, to his extreme disgust.  
"Mr. Weasley, fifty points from Gryffindor," Snape seethed at Ron, who had flung the crocodile heart across the dungeon, infuriated at Draco's mocking.  
Rachel turned to the appalled Draco before grinning mischievously, "no, that was hilarious."

 

********************************

 

"What was that about?" Rachel asked when her brother emerged from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where Professor Lupin had asked him to remain behind for a minute.  
"My Nimbus," he began, looking at his sister searchingly for a moment before continuing, "and the dementors. I told him that we both heard, er, well you know, Voldemort murdering mum. I asked him if he could teach us defenses against them, and he agreed to."  
Rachel laughed, "so Gryffindor. Instead of begging teachers, I've been doing my own research." She pulled out a book from her bag and handed it to him, "page seventy. Everything you would possibly need to know about dementors and repelling them. It was in the restricted section, naturally."  
"How'd you get it then?" Harry narrowed his eyes, "did you take the cloak?" the twins tended to share the invisibility cloak between them as each saw fit.  
"No," Rachel rolled her eyes, "I got Snape to write me a note."  
"Did you tell him what it was for?"  
"No, I told him I needed to get into the restricted section so he wrote me a note and that was it, Slytherin house doesn't feel the need to ask irrelevant questions."

 

*******************************

 

By December the weather had chilled enough at last to turn the relentless rain into shimmering snow that covered the grounds in a silent blanket of cold frosting. Nevertheless, the school was preparing for the festivities of the Christmas holiday with considerable merriment.  
Ravenclaw's practically obscene defeat of Hufflepuff led Slytherin Quidditch captain Marcus Flint to work his team to the bone, while Gryffindor's captain, Oliver Wood, reciprocated, with training sessions of ever-increasing intensity.  
To Flint's euphoria, Rachel Potter had, with her acquisition of a Firebolt, decreased her scoring time to just over seven seconds, from one end of the pitch to the other, complete with opposing Chasers and flying Bludgers.  
The eagerly awaited Slytherin-Ravenclaw match would not come, however, until after the Christmas break.

 

*********************************

 

"Mach!" Fred and George gestured wildly at Rachel as she entered the Great Hall with the Sidekicks. She excused herself from them and went to join the Weasley twins at the Gryffindor table.  
"Harry bummed to not be going on the Hogsmeade trip today?" Fred queried her with a wicked grin.  
"Of course he is," Rachel rolled her eyes in response.  
"Well, why don't we change that," George suggested, looking at his twin with a grin before dropping his voice, "we've decided to give up ownership of the Map."  
"What? Really?" Rachel asked in astonishment, the Marauder's Map was the Weasley twins' most prized possession.  
"Yes, really. We think young Harry will use it wisely," Fred chuckled, "but, seeing as it likely would have taken us years to figure out how to work it if you hadn't helped us, we reckoned you ought to have a say in this."  
"That is," George explained, "do you, Miss Mach Potter, agree to be in complete and dual ownership with Mr. Harry Potter, of the Marauder's Map, granted to you both by the generosity of Mr. Fred Weasley and Mr. George Weasley?"  
Rachel grinned widely, "I, Miss Mach Potter, agree to be in complete and dual ownership with Mr. Harry Potter, of the Marauder's Map, granted to us both by the generosity of Mr. Fred Weasley and Mr. George Weasley."  
The twins beamed at her.  
"It's our honor," they said simultaneously, before George pulled out what looked like old parchment and handed it to her.  
"Be in a classroom near the one-eyed old witch on the third floor. We'll bring Harry," Fred informed her as she tucked the parchment into her cloak discreetly. Then, nodding, she exited the Great Hall. 

 

****************************

 

The door of the deserted classroom opened to reveal a grinning Fred and George and a very confused Harry.   
Rachel sat cross-legged on a desk, thick green Slytherin cloak swirled around her, its silver snake crest glared at the empty classroom behind her.

"Early Christmas present for you, Harry," George announced, then gestured to Rachel, "Mach, if you will."  
Rachel hopped off the desk gracefully, retrieved the parchment hidden in her cloak, and spread it upon the desk for all to see.  
Harry stared at it, bewildered, "what's that supposed to be?"  
"This, Harry, is the secret of our success," George declared, lovingly running a hand over it.  
"We decided to pass it down, to you and Mach. We don't really require it anymore, we've known it by heart for years now," Fred announced.  
"What do we need with a bit of old parchment?" Harry asked in confusion, looking at his sister, who obviously knew more about this than he did.  
"A bit of old parchment!" Fred and George grimaced at Harry's ignorant offense, before explaining to Harry how they had snatched it from Filch's office during their first year.

"And you know how to work it?" Harry queried when the Weasley twins had finished their dramatic tale.  
"Oh yes, of course, all thanks to Mach here, actually," Fred beamed at Rachel.  
"She's the one who figured out how to," George informed Harry, "care to demonstrate, Mach?"  
Rachel grinned, pulling out her wand and tapping the Map gently, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."  
Immediately, curls of green words formed, announcing that "Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers" were "proud to present" the Marauder's Map.  
Harry leaned over it in amazement.

"Ready to visit Hogsmeade for the first time?" Rachel grinned at her twin, as Fred pointed out the various secret passageways leading directly to the village.   
"Mach, show him how to wipe it," George suggested.  
"Of course," Rachel tapped the Map with her wand again, saying, "Mischief Managed." The Map immediately went blank.  
"Brilliant!" Harry exclaimed softly.  
"Well, see you in Honeydukes," George winked at them before disappearing.

Rachel tapped the Map again, proclaiming her intent of "no good" and showed Harry the passageway just outside the room.  
"Let's go!" she announced excitedly, scooping up the Map and darting out into the corridor, Harry fast on her heels.

"Look, here we are," Rachel handed the Map to Harry and pointed out the two figures labeled with their names that had appeared on the Map, as they stood behind the statue of the witch.  
Harry studied the Map for a moment before pulling out his wand and tapping the statue, "dissendium."

Within minutes the twins were down the tunnel and streaking towards Hogsmeade, laughing the entire way.

 

After popping into Honeydukes and identifying Ron and Hermione in the crowds of Hogwarts students, "definitely not," was Harry's response to Ron when he asked Hermione if she thought Harry would want any Cockroach Clusters.

Once over the initial confusion and explanation as to how the twins had suddenly appeared in Honeydukes, and Hermione's fears for the twins' safety, exacerbated by the ubiquitous signs announcing dementor patrols in search of Sirius Black, the group fled from the cold and entered the Three Broomsticks, taking a corner table, out of sight of most of the pub.

Rachel swore softly when McGonagall, Flitwick, Hagrid, and the Minister of Magic entered the pub just moments after the four had warmed from their butterbeer.  
Ron and Hermione went for the more dramatic, Gryffindor style approach, shoving Harry roughly beneath the table and out of sight. Rachel, rather, took the more thoughtful, Slytherin approach, quickly casting a disillusionment charm upon herself.

The group listened in silence to the story recollected between the four adults at the bar. Rachel concentrated intently on the conversation. It jolted images and noises from the caverns of her memory.  
A loud roar, explosions, walls caving in, infant Harry, crying in the rubble of a destroyed house, the looming figure of Hagrid, a man arguing, "I'm their godfather", a roaring motorbike, the unmistakable half moon glasses of Albus Dumbledore. 

By the time the conversing group had left, Rachel was out of breath and could sense her twin's raw emotions.

The twins didn't speak to each other as they returned through the tunnel to the castle. A dark silence hung between them until after they had climbed out of the witch's entrance, when Harry turned to Rachel sharply.  
"You knew, didn't you," he said in an accusing tone, "I don't know how, but you did."  
"Knew what?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.  
"About Black," he spat the name venomously, "being our godfather, and betraying mum and dad."  
Rachel looked at him for a long moment before nodding in affirmation.


	9. IX

Holiday break began the following day. Rachel, acutely aware of her twin's anger over the conversation they had overheard in the Three Broomsticks, elected to avoid the Gryffindor trio for a bit. She was one of only two Slytherins who had chosen to remain at Hogwarts over break, the other a fifth year whom mostly remained in his dormitory.   
Rachel used the deserted Slytherin common room to study the Marauder's Map, which Harry had left with her in his storm of emotion yesterday. She had never had a chance to diligently study it, due to the monopoly Fred and George had on it for their pranks and adventures, and thus relished in the opportunity.   
She sat on a plush forest green armchair in the corner of the Slytherin common room, across from an enchanted green and silver decorated Christmas tree, which would hum Christmas carols on the hour. The folds of the Map spread out before her, as her eyes traversed the corridors and grounds of Hogwarts hungrily. She identified Dumbledore in his office, Filch prowling the corridors on the third floor, Snape browsing a potions ingredients' cupboard. She turned to the Gryffindor common room, eyeing the names there; Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley.  
She almost fell off the chair upon noticing a fourth name in the otherwise deserted Gryffindor common room.  
Peter Pettigrew.  
The labeled figure was unmoving, and directly next to Ron.  
"The Map has never lied." Fred and George's confident declaration to her two years ago echoed in her ears.

Rachel stared at the words, before almost hurling the Map across the room when another name appeared on the edges of the Map, moving rapidly towards the castle.  
Sirius Black.  
The name stopped near the Quidditch pitch, close to the entrance onto the field from the locker rooms.  
Immediately, Rachel grabbed the Map, jumped up, and tore out of the Slytherin common room.

 

She slowed when she approached the Quidditch locker rooms, heading down the tunnel to the exit onto the field. She glanced at the Map once more. It showed herself approaching the Quidditch pitch through the tunnel, the name Sirius Black pacing just outside the door.  
Standing about fifteen feet from the tunnel exit, Rachel drew her wand and pointed it at the door. With a click, it unlocked and swung open, revealing the softly falling snow outside.  
Peeking down at the Map, it showed the name of the mass murderer stop, then enter into the now open tunnel. Looking up, she watched as the large black dog entered the tunnel, shaking snow from its thin coat. It was dragging a long parcel, which it carried into the tunnel and laid at her feet, before looking up at her with knowing eyes, wagging its tail happily and turning to exit.  
"Padfoot!"  
The dog stopped abruptly and turned to face the girl, eyes curious.  
"Does the Map lie?" she held out the piece of parchment which still showed the halls, grounds, and occupants of Hogwarts.  
The dog stared at the Map intently before it looked into Rachel's shimmering green eyes. Slowly, humanly, it shook its head.

 

****************************

 

"Merry Christmas!" Rachel announced merrily as she kicked open the door to Ron and Harry's dormitory, eliciting a gasp from Hermione behind her. The girls had bunked together for the night in Hermione's dorm, seeing as the two were the only remaining female students from their respective houses in the castle.  
Rachel strolled into the scarlet dorm, holding a purring Nyx in her arms, to find the two boys already awake and ripping through their gifts.

"Well bloody hell, could you not break the door down?" Ron demanded as he struggled into a famous Mrs. Weasley sweater.  
"Merry Christmas, Ronald," Rachel said with a sugar sweet smile. She too, had received a thickly knit, bottle green sweater from Mrs. Weasley.  
"Oy, Harry, what's that?" Rachel pointed to the long, thin package Harry was examining at the moment. She, who had in fact placed it at that very spot only hours ago, knew exactly what it was.  
"Dunno," he responded, but a grin was playing about his face as he ripped the packaging off.  
"Bloody hell," Ron breathed, "a Firebolt."  
"Who sent it?" Rachel asked eagerly, rubbing her cat, Nyx, gently under her chin.  
"There's no card or anything," Ron responded, tearing through the wrappings, "Dumbledore, you reckon?"  
"No, he wouldn't," Harry responded, stroking the Firebolt lovingly, before looking up to see Hermione staring at him nervously, "what?"  
"It's just," she began, biting her lip, "that's supposed to be a very good broom, (Ron scoffed and rolled his eyes at this), and it's a bit odd that someone would send it to you and not say who it's from."  
"Who cares?" Ron groaned, "Harry, can I have a go?"  
"I don't think anyone should ride that broom just yet!" Hermione's voice rose in alarm.  
"Well, Harry's not going to sweep the floor with it," Ron argued condescendingly.  
"I think it's all right, Her-" Rachel was cut off when Hermione's prowling cat, Crookshanks, darted across the room and leapt at Ron, who roared at Crookshanks, missing an ill-aimed kick at the cat, while frantically trying to maintain a hold on a struggling Scabbers.  
"Get your bloody cat out of here, Hermione!" Ron snarled, groaning in pain when his attempted kick struck Harry's heavy trunk. A high pitched whistling filled the room, causing a black and silver blur to jump from Rachel's arms, race across the room and attack an old pair of socks from whence the whistling emitted.   
Rachel hurried over and picked up her cat from the socks, while Harry pulled out the whistling Sneakoscope in irritation before silencing it by stuffing it back into the socks.  
Hermione and Rachel hastened out of the room, each carrying their respective felines, Ron's outrage carrying out after them.

"He's so, so... so dramatic!" Hermione seethed as the girls headed down the boys' dormitory stairs and into the common room, obviously upset she couldn't find a better word to describe Ron's behavior.  
"Boys," Rachel sighed in agreement, "I'm going to head to my own dorm for a minute, I'll meet you back here."  
Hermione nodded, still fuming, before turning up the stairs to her own dorm.

Rachel exited the Gryffindor common room to find Peeves blowing raspberries and making rude comments to Sir Cadogan, who was so intoxicated, given the assorted flagons of mead which had appeared in his portrait, that he could scarcely vocalize his desire to duel the poltergeist.

"Ooo, Mach!" Peeves cackled upon her exit, "the sneaky little snake!"  
"Peeves," Rachel said coolly as she headed down to the Slytherin common room. Peeves floated above her, occasionally dropping the decorative icicles hanging from the ceiling down around her. "Are you prepared to be annihilated?"  
Peeves guffawed loudly, "not this year, mischievous Mach! You don't have any little friends with you this time!"  
Every Christmas afternoon, Rachel, usually assisted by Fred and George Weasley, held what they referred to as a "snowball fight" which would span the entire castle, including the grounds, with the only rule being that there were no rules. In the past it had regularly begun as a strategic, chess-like game, before turning into an unrestricted fight between the opposing sides, either with fists or with hexes.

Before Rachel entered the Slytherin common room, she flicked her wand upwards to where Peeves was still dropping sharp icicles around her. The icicles he was dropping immediately halted in mid air, before turning around and zipping towards the dropper.   
"Your move, Peeves!" she shouted after him as he fled, shrieking, while the icicles pursued him.


	10. X

Nyx jumped from Rachel's arms before she entered the Slytherin common room, and the cat streaked away across the corridor before disappearing around the corner. Rachel let her go and running up to her dorm, she retrieved the Marauder's Map. Tapping it and muttering quickly, her eyes flicked to the Gryffindor common room, where, sure enough, there were four names marked on the map, rather than the expected three.  
She stared at the scripted name of Peter Pettigrew, who was shown once again, unmoving, and directly next to Ron.  
Her mind chugged away, introducing tidbits of information to each other before tying them together decisively.

With another long look at the Map, she wiped it blank, quickly hid it in her green cloak, and headed back towards the Gryffindor common room.  
She did not encounter Peeves upon her return but it took a great deal of persuasion to convince Sir Cadogan to admit her into the Gryffindor common room. Fortunately in his drunkenness he failed to recognize her, and admitted her after she promised to duel him later when he could find his sword, which he seemed to have misplaced. (Rachel noticed that a neighboring picture now possessed Sir Cadogan's sword and was waving it about in mockery of its true owner.)

"It's far too merry in here," Rachel announced sarcastically upon entering the Gryffindor common room to find Ron and Hermione still steaming, while Harry ignored the two and was busy admiring his newly acquired Firebolt.  
"Blame Hermione's bloody cat," Ron ranted without looking in Hermione's direction.  
"Blaming a cat!" Hermione scoffed, "are you serious?"  
Rachel shared a look with Harry, and each twin gave an eye roll at the never ending argument between the two over their respective pets.

 

"How about lunch?" Rachel suggested a while later, when the simmering atmosphere became too much to bear on the holiday.  
"Excellent idea!" Harry jumped up, returning his new broomstick to the safety of his dorm before the four departed for the Great Hall.  
"Come here and fight, you dogs!" Sir Cadogan managed to roar after them, as he spilled the contents of his tankard all across his portrait.

The group entered the Great Hall, which had been rearranged into a more suitable position for the few remaining students at Hogwarts. A table for about a dozen in the middle of the Hall, where Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick, along with Filch, sat. Two other students who had remained at the school sat, looking as if they wanted to be anywhere but there.  
"Merry Christ-" Dumbledore began before a cackling Peeves burst out of the walls, and then proceeded to cause a large pile of snow to fall directly upon Rachel, burying her in a small white mountain in front of everybody.  
"Your move!" he mimicked, before swooping off into the castle gleefully.   
"PEEVES!" Rachel shouted furiously, after unburying herself from the snow and removing it with a quick spell. She streaked out of the Great Hall after the poltergeist, emerald green cloak streaming out behind her, its silver snake crest glowered at the group in the Hall with scorching eyes.

"Well," Dumbledore filled the silence that had conquered the Hall after the incident, "we all know Miss Potter will be back soon. We may as well eat."

The group was comfortably into the meal, and Professor Trelawney had joined them, much to the distaste of Professor McGonagall, when Rachel fluidly entered the hall once more, a slight smirk playing about her lips.

"Checkmate?" Professor Dumbledore queried with twinkling eyes.  
"Checkmate." Her voice rang out distinctly.

Before Rachel could sit however, Professor Trelawney uttered a small scream, pointing at Rachel in horror.  
"My dear, should you sit... we shall be thirteen! When thirteen dine together, the first to rise will be the first to die!"  
Professor Snape hid a laugh in his goblet while Professor McGonagall blatantly rolled her eyes at Trelawney's antics.  
"I'm sure Miss Potter will risk it," McGonagall informed Trelawney tartly.   
"If whoever rises first would kindly inform me of their preferred flower type, I would gladly send some to their funeral," Rachel responded sweetly, before slowly and deliberately sitting down next to Ron and Harry, while the majority of the table had to choke back their laughter, much to Professor Trelawney's indignation.

"What did you do to Peeves?" Ron asked her when Rachel when she had sat down.  
She grinned, "froze him, of course. In mid air. While he was fleeing down a flight of stairs. He shouldn't be going anywhere to soon. It's seems I've won yet again this year. Pity there's so few of us at the castle this year. It was a short game."

 

The small feast concluded with Professor Trelawney shrieking as Ron and Harry rose from the table to depart.  
"Which of you left his seat first?!"  
"Dunno," Ron responded.  
"You're both going to die then," Rachel summarized solemnly, to the masked amusement of the rest of the table, "flower preferences?"  
"Ah, tulips, if you will," Ron said, grinning, as Harry snorted before the two boys walked out.

"Going to tell McGonagall about the Firebolt?" Rachel said in a low voice to Hermione across the table when the boys had left.  
Hermione scowled at her, "yes. I think-"  
"You think Sirius Black sent it."  
"Well, yes."  
"Kind of rude, don't you think? Black sends Harry a broomstick, but doesn't send me anything. Favoritism."  
"Mach!"  
"Merry Christmas, Hermione," Rachel grinned charmingly before standing and departing from the Hall.

She returned alone to the Slytherin common room, deserted, save for her cat, Nyx, flicking her tail hypnotically under the decorated Christmas tree.  
"Nyx?" Rachel questioned aloud, wondering how the cat had gotten back into the common room after having darted away into the castle earlier.  
The silver and black cat purred loudly, trotting towards her owner, and dropped a small bit of thick parchment, wrapped and folded as though it contained something, at her feet. It fell to the soft green carpeting of the common room with a faint jingle. Rachel knelt immediately, picking up the package carefully while the cat rubbed her head against her arm, purring softly.

Sitting on the floor in the middle of the silent common room, Rachel unwrapped the thick parchment, and out tumbled a linked silver chain. On it, a pair of wedding bands.

Rachel stared down at the chain for a poignant moment before lifting it up to observe it closely. The bands were engraved, she realized immediately.   
Turning them over in the light, she stared at the name on one.  
Lily Evans.  
Rachel turned to the other.  
James Potter.

She was jerked from her thoughts by Nyx, as the cat batted the parchment the rings were wrapped in towards her. As she smoothed out the wrinkled parchment, she noticed a dried paw print imprinted on the parchment.

"Kind of rude, don't you think? Black sends Harry a broomstick, but doesn't send me anything. Favoritism."

 

 

******************************

 

Before long, the holiday had ended and the school was once more full of bustling students. Harry, intent upon learning how to defend himself against another dementor attack, harried Professor Lupin to keep true to his promise of teaching him.

 

"It is called-"  
"-the Patronus Charm," Rachel's voice rang out in answer as she entered the History of Magic classroom where Harry and Professor Lupin were preparing to practice.  
The pair turned to look at her.  
"You're late," Harry told her.  
"And fashionably so," she responded smoothly, coming to stand next to her twin.  
Lupin chuckled softly before continuing his description of the Patronus Charm and its effects.

"You try it," Rachel urged her twin after Lupin had told them the incantation, and with a concentrated attempt, Harry managed to produce a gleaming silver puff from the end of his wand.  
"Did you see that?"  
"Very good. Ready to try it on a real dementor?" Lupin asked, approaching the locked case.  
"Yes!" Harry responded, as Rachel hurriedly scrambled back, away from her twin and the case the boggart was in. Lupin and Harry looked at her questioningly.  
"I've never actually, er, seen my boggart before," she admitted sheepishly, "but I don't think it'll be a dementor."  
"I see," Lupin said, looking at her curiously, before pulling the lid off the case in which the boggart resided.

Rachel watched as the huge, cloaked figure arose and faced her twin. Her breath froze in the air as the temperature plummeted, and she felt her head grow dizzy, causing her to lean heavily against a desk. Her twin fared no better, as voices floated through their minds.  
"Rachel! No!"  
"Not Harry!"  
"Stand aside!"  
"Please!"

The twins' eyes flickered open at the same time, as Harry found himself lying on the floor, while Rachel was huddled under a desk.  
"Are you two all right?" Lupin asked them anxiously, frankly astonished at the effect even a boggart of a dementor had upon the two, before handing them chocolate frogs.  
"Yeah," the twins replied in eerie unison.

"Try a stronger memory, Harry," Rachel suggested, wincing as she stood up from under the desk.  
"Alright," he replied, face still white.  
"Ready?" Lupin asked.  
"Ready," Harry responded.

Once more Rachel watched as the dementor swooped towards Harry. He tried in vain to repel it but to no avail, as Rachel found herself unable to see, as voices yet again conquered her senses.

"Did you hear Dad that time?" Rachel asked Harry when the two came around again.  
"Yeah," he replied, sitting up slowly.  
"You heard James?" Lupin asked curiously.  
"Yeah," Harry replied, "why- you didn't know him, did you?"  
"Yes he did," Rachel replied, staring at Lupin from where she sat on the floor, leaning against the wall of the classroom.  
Lupin looked at her with a strange face before responding, "yes, you're right, I did. We were friends at Hogwarts...Perhaps we should leave it here for tonight, this charm is highly advanced-"  
"No!" Harry protested, climbing to his feet. Rachel rolled her eyes at him, she had had enough of his weak attempts at a Patronus. "Once more!"

"Alright," Lupin acquiesced, "ready?"  
"Ready," Harry replied firmly. Rachel scrambled to her feet and approached him, coming to a stop directly behind him.  
Lupin released the dementor, and the room descended into cold darkness. As Harry shouted the incantation, Rachel leaned forward, placing a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed in reassurance. A huge silver form burst from Harry's wand, halting the dementor and the voices on the edges of the twins' consciousness.

"Riddikulus!" came Lupin's shout, and the dementor disappeared with a crack. The twins sank to the floor, exhausted, as Lupin forced the boggart back into the case.  
"Can we be done now," Rachel groaned to Harry.  
"Yeah, we're done," he replied breathless, before turning to Lupin who had successfully returned the boggart to its case.  
"Professor, if you knew our dad at Hogwarts, you must have-"  
"-known Sirius Black as well." Rachel finished off for her twin.  
Lupin turned sharply to look at the two, "what gives you that idea?"  
"Nothing, we just know that they were friends at Hogwarts too..."  
"Yes, I knew him," Lupin said coolly, "or thought I did. But it's getting late, you two better be off now."


	11. XI

"It's game day! This is it, the big match! Can you feel the glory? It's beautiful!" Flint was practically crying as the Slytherin Quidditch team made their way through the corridors to the Great Hall for breakfast, the morning of their match versus Ravenclaw. Flint had ordered Rachel not to wear her Quidditch robes down to the Hall like the rest of the team did, still waiting a few more hours to announce her presence on the team. Miraculously, all rumors had successfully been put to rest, partly because Flint had complained to Professor Snape, who threatened all his classes that if any further rumors concerning his house's Quidditch team were heard, he would personally make sure the perpetrator found himself scrubbing bedpans in the hospital wing for the rest of the school year.

"Mach, you ready?" Draco fell into step beside her.  
"Dunno," she responded, "your arm going to be able to catch the Snitch?"  
Draco rolled his eyes, she would never let him live his injury and its consequences down, "yes, definitely."  
"Well, good, because I would prefer to not have to score more than one hundred and fifty points for us to win."

 

"Mach! Eat!" Kerry ordered her at the Slytherin table, while their fellow housemates buzzed with excitement for the game.  
"I am!"  
"No you're pushing your food around."  
"Well, I'm nervous."  
"Don't be, you've been training for months, there's nothing new about this, just do the same thing you've been doing and you'll be golden. Well, silver," Kerry gave a vocal nod to their houses colors.  
"If I get hit by a Bludger, will you hex the Beater that hit it at me?"  
"Of course, what else are friends for?"

 

****************************

 

The roar of the crowd pulsed through the tunnel, as the Slytherin team waited anxiously to take the field.   
"Listen up team!" Flint demanded a last minute speech, "we've been practicing hard for this, we deserve this win today. Remember the plan, and stick to it! Don't forget, we're better than them! And we've got the best Chaser this school has seen in ages!" Flint stared at Rachel with intensity, "if you will, Mach."  
The team huddled into a circle around their yet unknown star Chaser, who looked at them each in turn before shouting, "'Salazar's Squad' on three, one, two, three!"  
"SALAZAR'S SQUAD!" the team roared, stamping their feet and broomsticks on the ground and hissing their 's's.

Her parents' rings felt heavy on her neck, hanging from the silver chain, where they had been since she'd received them; (she discovered that there was a neat little spell acting upon it that caused the chain and rings to become invisible when placed around one's neck, the weight in the hollow of her neck the only clue to its presence) as she stepped out of the tunnel and onto the pitch. Snow was lightly falling still, landing on her long, auburn braid and disappearing as though if melted by the color. Her green and silver Quidditch robes swirled around her, a silver number seven gleamed on her back. Flint insisted she take her brother's number.  
Somewhere in the stands, Gryffindor Lee Jordan was announcing the match. Slightly muffled by the falling snow, Rachel listened to his announcements with amusement.  
"WELL FOLKS, TURNS OUT THE RUMORS WERE RIGHT, MACH POTTER IS THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE SLYTHERIN QUIDDITCH TEAM. CAN SHE FLY AS WELL AS HER BROTHER? HAS SHE REPLACED MALFOY AS SEEKER?"

Ravenclaw met the Slytherins in the middle of the pitch, and Madam Hooch demanded the captains shake hands.  
As both teams kicked off to await the release of the balls, Flint turned to look at her. Rachel nodded at him, then hopped onto her Firebolt and soared into the air, eyes on the ground where the Quaffle had yet to be released.

With the whistle, the balls were released. All thoughts were put aside in her mind as, acting on instinct, Rachel swooped downwards to retrieve the Quaffle. Flint and Montague, her other Chasers for the game, flew towards Ravenclaw's Chasers, blocking them from catching the Quaffle before she did.  
Immediately, Rachel seized the Quaffle with her left hand, then soared upwards, above the entangled Chasers. She began counting to herself. One... two...  
Urging her Firebolt onward, she zoomed across the field, quickly dodging a Bludger as it was hit her way with a well timed roll.   
Three... four...  
A Ravenclaw Chaser appeared on her left, leaning in for the steal. She dropped in the air just before the impact, then nimbly skirted around a Ravenclaw Beater.  
Five...  
Ravenclaw's goal posts were fast approaching. She leaned forward, steadying the Quaffle in her left hand and readied for the aim.  
Six...  
Ravenclaw's Keeper was matching her movements, but wasn't expecting the feint she pulled at the last minute, streaking towards the left, then looping and pulling up sharply to the right.  
Seven. She counted as the Quaffle sailed through Ravenclaw's rightmost goal post.

"SLYTHERIN SCORES AND HOLY MERLIN HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE!"

In the stands, Oliver Wood was infuriated as Slytherin house's cheers echoed in his ears.  
"OY! Harry! Did you know Mach was that good?!"  
"No!" Harry shouted back, looking astounded.  
"Why the bloody hell isn't she in Gryffindor!"  
"Dunno!"  
"We knew Slytherin was up to something sneaky!" Fred hollered over to Wood, as another cheer erupted from Slytherin due to Rachel scoring again.

By the time Ravenclaw gained possession of the Quaffle for the first time all game, Rachel Potter had already notched fifty points for Slytherin. A well aimed Bludger from a Ravenclaw Beater had struck Montague in the arm before he was able to toss the Quaffle towards Rachel. As a result, Ravenclaw edged their way onto the scoreboard, scoring before Marcus Flint yelled, "defense!" towards Rachel. Immediately, she turned from her hovering offensive position of waiting for a fellow teammate to gain possession of the Quaffle, and dived to where a blue Ravenclaw Chaser was streaking across the field towards the Slytherin goal posts.  
Flint swooped in towards the right of the Ravenclaw Chaser, as Rachel followed the blue-clad Chaser on his left, remaining in his blind spot, forcing him to swerve to the left to avoid Flint, where Rachel, undetected, met him, swooped in quickly and with a deft hand, snatched the Quaffle away before he knew she was there. Dodging a flying Bludger, she arced one hundred and eighty degrees, and zoomed off towards the Ravenclaw end, Quaffle clutched tightly under her arm.

 

"HER SEVENTH GOAL THIS GAME AND SLYTHERIN LEADS EIGHTY TO TEN BECAUSE OF MACH'S MEAN MANEUVERING!" Lee Jordan's voice carried over the pitch.

 

As Rachel Potter tallied her eighth goal of the game, Professor Snape, from where the professors sat watching the game, turned in his seat to look up at Professor McGonagall, who was visibly vexed due to the nature of the game. Noticing him smirking up at her, she glared downwards at him coldly. The rivalry between the two houses over the split possession of the Potter twins manifested itself in continuous competition between the two heads of houses, and Professor McGonagall took extreme offense to the sudden and remarkable emergence of Rachel Potter as a Quidditch Chaser, feeling as though it infringed upon Gryffindor's monopoly of Potter talent in that field. 

 

"Catch the Snitch already!" Rachel shouted at Draco as she hurtled past him, carrying the Quaffle towards the Ravenclaw goal posts for what would be her ninth goal.  
"I'm trying!" he shouted back, the wind carrying his voice after her. In truth, both he and the Ravenclaw Seeker had been more distracted by her elegant flying style than to search for the Snitch. It was captivating to watch Rachel fluidly maneuver through the air, never failing to deftly avoid a Bludger or player with a calculated curve or curl. Some twists were so breathtaking, you wondered how she managed to keep herself from becoming entirely disoriented and falling from the sky.  
He watched, hovering far above the field, as Rachel streaked across the air with rapid celerity. She jarringly dropped a few feet suddenly to avoid an impact between two incoming Ravenclaws, before having to twist away from a Ravenclaw Beater, his bat just missing her shoulder. Soaring towards the goal posts, Ravenclaw's last line of defense hastily tried to guess her intentions, but she proved too unpredictable, as even Draco himself thought she would try for the middle post, instead she deliberately waited a split second, to the confusion of the Keeper, before hurling it through the leftmost hoop. Slytherin was now up one hundred to ten, yet only three players between the two teams had scored, a Ravenclaw, Flint, and Rachel.

Draco watched Rachel drive the score up by ten again, before noticing the Ravenclaw Seeker streak after something. Immediately, he tore his eyes away from the graceful figure in green and zoomed after the blue clad Seeker.

 

Rachel had lost count of how many times she had scored. Between the roar of the crowd, the chanting of her name, and the hollering of Lee Jordan over every event that occurred in the game, the noises blurred together until they were indistinguishable. She focused on counting the seconds that passed from her receiving of the Quaffle to her putting it past the Ravenclaw Keeper.  
Seven seconds equaled ten points.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.  
One hundred twenty to ten.  
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.  
One hundred thirty to ten.

She didn't think, she doubted whether she even breathed. Her racing heart and the wind in her face were the only things she became aware of, as she worked in flawless synergy with the broomstick beneath her, letting her subconscious instinct conquer the air and all opposition.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.  
One hundred forty to ten.  
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.  
One hundred fifty to ten.

"TWO MORE!" her ears discerned the voice, yet she had already given Slytherin one hundred sixty points before she made sense of what she'd heard. Slowing her speed for the first time all game, she noticed the crowd roaring over a chase occurring at the other end of the field, between the two opposing Seekers. The figure in blue seemed to be gaining rapidly on a glint of gold, while the green figure was following close behind. One hundred fifty points to the winner of the chase. The current score, one hundred sixty to ten.  
Tying the game was not an option for Slytherin house.   
One, two.  
Rachel wasn't sure how the Quaffle ended up under her arm once more as she raced towards the Ravenclaw hoops, she was only aware of the roar growing around the stadium, as the game's fate now depended on whichever ball was caught or thrown first.  
Three, four.  
An incoming bludger. She ducked. It whizzed over her harmlessly.  
Five.  
"RAVENCLAW RAPIDLY GAINING ON THE SNITCH-"  
Six.  
She let fire the Quaffle towards the post, the Keeper lunged for it-  
Seven.  
-he missed.

"INCREDIBLE! MACH SCORES TO SEND SLYTHERIN TO ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY POINTS, AND CHANG CATCHES THE SNITCH, GIVING RAVENCLAW ONE HUNDRED SIXTY POINTS!"

Rachel barely comprehended the announcement before being mobbed by green robed figures.  
"SIXTEEN GOALS-"  
"YOU DID IT!"  
"BLOODY BEAUTIFUL-"

The team landed on the ground to be swarmed with cheering Slytherin fans, roaring their appreciation for the win. Rachel laughed delightedly as various Slytherins encircled her, hugging her, shaking her hand, complimenting her flying, asking for her autograph.  
The mob dispersed reluctantly when Flint roared at them to quit harassing his Chaser and shuffled the team towards the locker rooms, gloating all the while.  
"OY! Flint!" the team turned to see Fred and George Weasley approaching them from across the pitch.  
"It's totally breaking the rules, but we would give you a Seeker that can actually catch the Snitch for a Chaser."  
"Piss off, Gryffindor," Flint snarled, marching his triumphant team past the twins, off the pitch, and into the locker room.


	12. XII

Rachel Potter's talents on the Quidditch field were the talk of the school for quite some time following the Slytherin-Ravenclaw match, although to her it seemed to do nothing but fuel the antipathy between Gryffindor and Slytherin houses.   
The rivalry between Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint became so intense, more than once the two had to separated from the other by their teams before threats and fists could turn to hexes.   
Harry refused to even talk to his twin for several days following the match, irritated by the remarks he received from Slytherin house on his flying skills in comparison to his sister's, as well as having his ego wounded by his twin emerging and infringing upon something he always viewed as his field of talent.  
The entire school eagerly followed the house rivalry between Professors Snape and McGonagall as though it was a popular Muggle television show. Some students went so far as to report to their respective head of house the latest remark the other had made, only to deliver a responding jibe back.

If "points for Potters" were being tallied for both houses, Gryffindor made a rapid gain when Professor McGonagall declared Harry's confiscated Firebolt hex-free, just in time for the upcoming Ravenclaw-Gryffindor match-up. When the entire school became infatuated with Harry's new broomstick, Slytherin house was enraged, seeing as their Potter flew the exact same broom and no one made a fuss about it, but Gryffindor's Potter got a new Firebolt and it's as though he defeated the Dark Lord all over again.

 

****************************

 

Rachel watched the match-up of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor from the stands of the Quidditch pitch, supporting Gryffindor house with Ron and Hermione, who were each using her as a liaison to the other, as they had in effect, 'cancelled' their friendship, due to their latest animal related argument, this time over Crookshanks alleged eating of Scabbers.  
"Wow, the Firebolt is fast," Hermione murmured, as the group watched Harry race across the sky in pursuit of the Snitch.  
In response, Ron scoffed snobbishly before saying coldly, "Mach, did you know the Firebolt's the best broom on the market? All the professional teams have put in their orders for them already."  
Hermione lapsed into a furious silence at this, and the group watched the rest of the game without comment.

 

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, as the group jumped to their feet. Three black hooded figures had appeared on the field, looking up to where Harry was speeding towards the Snitch.  
Rachel frowned, staring at the figures, realizing with a jolt that they weren't floating as dementors did. She watched her twin slow, pull out his wand, and produce a huge, silver Patronus. He'd improved tremendously with all the lessons, but from her viewpoint, Rachel still couldn't be quite sure what shape he had produced exactly.   
The Patronus Charm, the appearance of the hooded dementors, and Harry snatching the Snitch immediately after, caused chaos throughout the stadium. Rachel, Ron, and Hermione fought their way through the crowd and bolted down to the field, running towards where the Gryffindor team had now landed, cheering over their victory.

Rachel was the first to approach the black hooded figures, now stumbling about on the ground, dazed from the Patronus Harry had produced. With a flick of her wand, the hoods of the figures revealed, to her mortification, Malfoy, Goyle, Crabbe, and Flint.  
"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?"   
No one had ever seen Rachel Potter as angry as she was at that moment, especially with those of her own house and team, and many students gathered around the scene, watching in captivation.  
"WAS THIS YOUR IDEA OF A JOKE?" she seized Malfoy and Flint by the front of their hooded black robes and dragged them to their feet with sheer force. Stunned, the two stared at the girl with nothing short of fear coupled with guilt in their eyes. Crabbe and Goyle huddled on the ground in terror behind them.  
Professor McGonagall, although rather enjoying the scene of the small redheaded girl instilling such terror into the boys, pushed her way through the congregating multitude, to step in, seething at the trick.  
Before she could however, Rachel, instead of hexing the pair, took a leaf out of Gryffindor's book and slapped Malfoy and Flint across the face as hard as she could. The boys doubled over, faces red from a combination of humiliation and pain.  
"Mach! We were just having a bit of fun-"  
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? THIS ISN'T FUNNY."  
"Miss Potter, please, I will handle this," McGonagall stepped in quickly, sensing the situation was not going to subside.  
"We'll assist here, Professor." Fred and George Weasley, extricating themselves from the celebrating Quidditch team, stepped in, and, each grabbing one of Rachel's arms and half carried, half pulled her away from the scene.

 

It wasn't until the Weasley twins had dragged her halfway to the Gryffindor common room, ahead of the already partying Quidditch team, did Rachel's fury subside.  
"Well, I'll say Mach, that was splendid to watch," George commented as the twins released her arms.  
"Bloody brilliant if you ask me," Fred added as they entered the Gryffindor common room.  
"I just... I can't believe... my own team... I would have fallen off my broom too if the dementors had showed up at our match!" Rachel exclaimed, shaking her head angrily, unable to vocalize the profound emotional impact the stunt had on her.  
"Well, you can always come play for Gryffindor if you want," George handed her a butterbeer as the cheering Gryffindors streamed into the common room. "Wood would love that."

 

The party commenced around her, graciously supplied by Fred and George and their convenient excursion from which they returned with armloads of Honeydukes sweets. She sat in a corner of Gryffindor tower, lost in reflection on the events from earlier. The only one who shared her downcast spirit was Hermione, who sat in the opposite corner, attempting to read a thick book. At some point, after having caused another skirmish between Ron and Hermione, which ended when Hermione burst into tears and fled to her dorm, Harry approached his sister, after not having carried out a conversation more than a few words since the Slytherin-Ravenclaw match.

"Nice Patronus," she murmured softly as he sat next to her.  
"Thanks," he replied immediately, before looking sharply at her, "did you know that Malfoy-"  
"No, I didn't know they were going to do that," she replied quickly with a sigh.  
"Oh," Harry said, before lapsing into a brief silence  
"You know," he began again after a moment, "I think you're a much better flyer than me."  
Rachel looked him in the eyes, a mirror of hers, save behind glasses, "how hard was that for you to say?"  
He laughed, putting his arm around his sister's shoulder fondly, "pretty hard."

The twins sat in silence for a moment, enjoying each other's presence, before Rachel turned to Harry, eyes growing serious.  
"You know how you got the Firebolt for Christmas, and there was no clue as to who sent it?"  
"Yeah," he responded, unsure where she was heading.  
"Well," she looked around anxiously, "I also got an... unmarked gift."  
Harry stared at her, eyes wide, "what?"  
Rachel reached for her neck, and to Harry's confusion, made the motion of pulling off a necklace of some sort. He watched as a silver chain appeared in her hand. She held it out to him. He slowly extended his palm, and she dropped it into his outstretched palm with a gentle clink.  
Harry studied the chain, observing the two rings it held.   
"Mom and Dad's," she murmured in his ear as he turned over the rings to gape at the engraved names of their parents.


	13. XIII

The prank pulled by Slytherin on Harry during the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch match and Rachel's reaction to it was quickly overshadowed by Ron Weasley's claim that Sirius Black had entered Gryffindor tower the night after the game. The story quickly spiraled into exaggerations, such as Sirius Black busting into Gryffindor tower, wielding a Muggle machine gun, and trying to murder every last Gryffindor.  
Regardless of how abominably glorious the act actually was, security was heightened around the castle, and there was a collective agreement that the dementors supposedly guarding the school were, in fact, entirely useless, as the mass murderer had already managed to find his way into Hogwarts not once, but twice. 

The Slytherin Quidditch team all but fell apart when Rachel Potter did not make an appearance for the first four practices following the dementor prank. After she was later seen chatting amicably with Oliver Wood (over the harmless subject of the upcoming Quidditch World Cup), the team collectively and wholeheartedly apologized to her and implored her to return to practices. She grudgingly did so, on the basis of her love for the sport.

Despite Rachel and Hermione's tireless research into former cases regarded dangerous creatures and their involved incidents, the hearing Hagrid was soon to have concerning Buckbeak's injury of Draco Malfoy was not expected to go well; as Rachel announced to Hermione one night while the two were in the library. Hermione, who had dedicated herself wholly to the task for Hagrid, partially to distract herself from the still simmering anger between her and Ron, had burst into tears at this statement.

Another Hogsmeade visit had been scheduled, and Ron was eager for Harry to see more of the town, so Rachel had allocated the Marauder's Map to him for the weekend, which he took along with the invisibility cloak. Rachel had opted out from the Hogsmeade visit, claiming she had schoolwork to catch up on.  
Instead she found herself knocking on the door to Professor Lupin's office.

She entered the room slowly when Lupin's voice had rang out, "come in!"  
Professor Lupin sat at his desk, quill in hand, methodically grading the latest assignments. He looked surprised to see her.  
"Rachel, what brings you here today?" he queried mildly.  
"I was wondering if I could ask you a quick question," she responded immediately, sliding into the chair across from his desk.  
"Go ahead."  
"You said a while back that you knew James, our dad," she began, hesitating a moment before asking suddenly, "what was he like?"  
Lupin put down his quill with a quick motion and leaned back in his seat, studying her for a long moment.  
"Your father, was many things," he began cautiously, "Talented and confident, but humble too. Loyal, a prankster, and incredibly skilled on the Quidditch field, something his children have clearly inherited."  
"-what about Sirius Black?"  
Lupin's face darkened and he sat quietly for a moment before beginning. "I will admit, when I knew him, he was astoundingly similar to your father in many ways."  
"Similar... Like brothers?"  
"Yes," Lupin's said shortly, "but clearly their similarities meant nothing in the end."  
Rachel ignored the comment, "and what about Peter Pettigrew?"  
"What makes you ask of him?"  
"He was friends with them too."  
"He was... Although more like their... biggest fan."  
"And Black killed him?"  
"Yes."  
Rachel looked at him intently, about to ask a further question when he interrupted.  
"Seeing as I've answered many of your quick questions, I'd like to beg the same of you."  
Rachel nodded in consent.  
"How long have you known about my... condition?"  
"I had suspicions earlier, but when Professor Snape entered your office with Wolfsbane potion it was obvious. But no one pays attention to such things, so no one else knows. Although Snape wasn't too subtle about it when he insisted on covering Werewolves and assigned the essay."  
Lupin chuckled softly, looking somewhat relieved.  
As though he had heard them, suddenly the fireplace across the room roared to life with green flames, and emitted Snape's voice. "Lupin! I want a word!"  
"I'd best go see what he wants," Lupin said, rising from his desk. Rachel nodded, standing as well and heading towards the door. She had already departed and was heading towards Snape's office by the time Lupin stepped into the fireplace.

When she arrived, Ron had just burst into the room declaring he was responsible for the Zonko's products Harry was in possession of. Although Rachel immediately realized the object of concern was in fact the thankfully blank Marauder's Map. She silently cursed her twin for somehow managing to get himself into the situation in which Snape and now Lupin were aware of its existence, regardless of what they thought it to be. And it was so very Gryffindor of him to have Lupin bail him out.

"Yes, I know it's a map," Lupin stated, after the group had left the dungeons and a furious Snape. "I don't want to know how it fell into your possession. I am however, astounded that you didn't hand it in. Particularly after what happened the last time a student left information about the castle lying around. And I can't let you have it back, Harry."  
Rachel was silently cursing her brother to hell and back. 

"Why did Snape think I got it from the manufacturers?" Harry questioned, ignoring Rachel's glares in his direction.  
"Because these mapmakers would have wanted to lure you out of school. They'd think it extremely entertaining."  
"Did you know them?" Rachel asked sharply.  
Lupin looked at her pointedly, "we've met."

Lupin then walked away, leaving the group to their thoughts. After a moment, Rachel excused herself from the boys and hurried after Lupin.  
She caught up to him just as he was entering his office.  
"Professor!"  
He turned, anticipating her question, "no, I won't give it back to you either."  
She shook her head, looking him in the eye gravely, "does the Map lie?"  
"What do you mean-"  
"Will it ever show someone... someone whom is supposed to be dead?"  
Lupin stared at her, a strange look coming over his face before he responded, "the Map never lies."


	14. XIV

"-can't believe that filthy little Mudblood would dare to raise a hand against me. Mark my words, father will be hearing about this. If only-"  
"What happened?" Rachel Potter lazily questioned Draco Malfoy as he stormed into the Slytherin common room accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle.  
"That Mudblood Granger," Draco fumed as Rachel noticed a large red mark on his face, "struck me."  
Rachel knew from her prior experience of slapping Draco Malfoy across the face, that he must have deserved it.  
"Well, what were you doing?"  
"Nothing! We were coming back from that pathetic class called 'Care of Magical Creatures'-"  
"You were making fun of Hagrid and Buckbeak, weren't you. I thought I told you to stop that."  
"I wasn't 'making fun' of-"  
"OY! You two over there, I thought I said no in-team fighting? We aren't each others enemies, the enemy is Gryffindor. Or have you forgotten the most important Quidditch match of the year?" Marcus Flint yelled from across the common room where he sat in conversation with Warrington and Montague.  
The obscene defeat of Hufflepuff by the Slytherin Quidditch team during their most recent game had united the team once more, prior troubles forgiven; it had also set Slytherin against Gryffindor for the match-up to decide the Quidditch Cup champion. This however, further increased the tension between the two rivaling houses of the school.   
"Well Draco here has to go create unnecessary conflicts between-"  
"I don't create conflicts, you overreact!"  
"SHUT UP!" Flint roared, "Malfoy, I don't care if Granger disemboweled you, all I care about is if you can catch the Snitch. And Mach, I hope you remember which goal posts you're supposed to score in when we're playing Gryffindor."

 

**********************************

 

The tension between the two houses leading up to the championship Gryffindor-Slytherin game was legendary, its focal point being which Potter was thought to be the better player. Many sided with Gryffindor simply out of their hatred for Slytherin house. Some Quidditch connoisseurs sided with Slytherin, simply because they appreciated Rachel Potter's talents on the field. Still others chose non-alignment, as choosing one meant making an immediate enemy of the other.  
Squabbles broke out in the hallways between the two houses, with magic often being used to resolve them.   
The respective teams viewed their Potter as a precious treasure needing to be protected from the barbaric opposing side, and both reported unfounded and invented threats upon their well-being to their heads of houses; between whom the animosity was hardly lacking.  
Strategies were mapped out, then scratched, then mapped out once more, before being changed entirely when new information of the opposition's plan was learned.   
Spying took place on both sides, but to no avail as each house was on hyper alert for a possible infiltration by the other. Conspiracies over the other house's insidious plans for sabotage arose and were hardly taken lightly by either side.  
The Captains independently issued an order to their respective houses that the Potter twins were not allowed to interact with each other or any member of the opposing house, for fear of an exchange of confidential information relating to the match and strategy.  
The twins themselves, while both also possessing the highly competitive nature that consumed their houses, found some of the measures too extreme and were thankful when the day of the match finally arrived.

 

The Gryffindor team marched into the Great Hall on the morning of the game with a swagger to their step as more than half of the school applauded them. In response, the Slytherin team was promptly ushered out of the Hall by their captain to avoid unnecessary scuffles at such an immediate time before the game, for fear of an injurious conflict breaking out.

 

"Hey, Mach, listen," Flint pulled her aside just as the Slytherin team entered the locker room, "I know it's a short notice, but I've changed our lineup last minute as part of our strategy against Gryffindor. A surprise attack. No one will expect it. They've got three lightweight speedy Chasers, we're going to fully combat that with three heavyweight solid Chasers. Wood has Gryffindor trained to deal with our threat of you, as a fast Chaser, they'll be caught off guard when we come out with something different."  
Rachel stared at him, slowly processing his words. Her rational subconscious understood his reasoning, but her consciousness refused to agree with it. "So... you're having Warrington... sub in for me?"  
"Yes... You'll sit this game, and Warrington is playing for you."   
"Oh... alright," was all she could manage before pushing past Flint and into the locker room, face masked.  
She sat in the corner of the locker room while the team bustled around her, preparing anxiously and excitedly. She didn't hear Flint's speech, nor the cheer the team gave in response to it.   
"Good luck out there!" she encouraged them weakly as they filed out onto the buzzing field.

The roar of the crowd along with Lee Jordan's voice reverberated through the locker room where Rachel remained as he announced the arrival of the two teams.  
"AND HERE ARE THE GRYFFINDORS! POTTER, BELL, JOHNSON, SPINNET, WEASLEY, WEASLEY, AND WOOD-"  
The announcement was interrupted by cheering from the crowd, although Rachel picked up on the drone of booing from the Slytherin crowd.   
"ANS HERE COME THE SLYTHERIN TEAM, LED BY CAPTAIN FLINT. HE'S MADE SOME CHANGES IN THE LINEUP, IT APPEARS THE POTTER MATCH-UP WILL NOT BE HAPPENING. THEY SEEM TO BE GOING FOR SIZE INSTEAD OF SKILL TODAY-"  
Rachel was almost heartened by the boos emitted by the Slytherin crowd at this. She stared across the locker room where a board depicting a Quidditch field hung on the wall, notes and arrows scratched across it. She couldn't bring herself to leave the locker room to watch the match.  
The whistle of the game beginning was audible through the walls of the locker room, and she could just pick up on the announcements of the happenings.   
"-JOHNSON WITH THE QUAFFLE, SHE SWERVES, AND SHE SCORES! TEN-ZERO GRYFFINDOR!"   
Rachel picked up her Firebolt and began trimming its tail twigs methodically.  
Whistling was heard from Madam Hooch, and Rachel heard the announcement of a penalty shot to both sides.   
"-TWENTY-ZERO GRYFFINDOR!" came the shout, then, "HE'S SAVED IT!" the excitement in Lee Jordan's voice told her Slytherin had fumbled on their penalty shot.  
She groomed her Firebolt, listening to the commentary of the game which went back and forth for a moment before-  
"THAT WAS DELIBERATE!"  
Rachel stopped, looking up from her Firebolt, staring at the board across the room, wondering what could have happened between the two teams.  
Lee Jordan soon answered her, "THIRTY-ZERO! TAKE THAT, YOU DIRTY, CHEATING-" his voice was cut off immediately. Rachel dropped her Firebolt in irritation before standing to pace about the room. It was only three goals, but still, Flint's plan for solid defense against Gryffindor's speedy offense seemed to be failing. 

"Mach?" the door to the locker room opened hesitantly, and the Sidekicks stepped in.   
"Are you alright?" Sadie questioned worriedly, looking at her, "your eyes looked funny for a moment there."  
Rachel looked at the ground, blinking quickly. The last time she had received that comment, it had been from her brother, and it had been in the Chamber of Secrets.

"Why didn't Flint put you in?" Kerry asked, angrily switching the topic to Rachel's relief.  
"Something about matching Gryffindor's speed with weight," Rachel answered bluntly, kicking at the ground in irritation, "he just told me before the game started. Apparently it was a deliberate plan to confuse Gryffindor."  
"It's not working very well," Abigail stated critically.  
"I've noticed," Rachel gritted her teeth, glaring across the room at the arrows traced onto the board.  
"It's getting dirty out there," Sadie added, just as Madam Hooch could be heard yelling, "YOU DO NOT ATTACK THE KEEPER UNLESS THE QUAFFLE IS WITHIN THE SCORING AREA!" and Gryffindor was awarded another penalty, to have Angelina Johnson score again.  
"SIXTY-TEN GRYFFINDOR!"  
Then the announcement, "HARRY'S SEEN THE SNITCH-" before an angry roar erupted from the crowd, "YOU CHEATING SCUM! YOU FILTHY CHEATING-"  
"What do you think that's about?" Kerry wondered aloud.  
"Not sure I want to know," Rachel groaned, sinking to the floor in the middle of the room, head in her hands.  
The crowd's roaring shook the walls of the locker room.  
Lee Jordan soon dully announced that Slytherin had scored, the score now seventy-twenty, while cheers erupted from the Slytherin crowd and screams burst from the Gryffindor fan base.  
"Maybe we can come back-" Abigail was immediately cut off by a roar and Lee Jordan's excited voice shouting, "SHE SCORES! SHE SCORES! GRYFFINDOR LEADS EIGHTY TO TWENTY!"  
Abigail sighed, and dropped to the floor next to Rachel, Sadie and Kerry followed suit.   
The roaring of the Gryffindor crowd increased, as did Lee Jordan's ecstasy, "HARRY HOT ON THE SNITCH, CAN HE BEAT MALFOY.... HE DOES! HE'S CAUGHT IT! GRYFFINDOR WINS! GRYFFINDOR WINS! GRYFFINDOR WINS THE HOUSE CUP!"

Rachel sighed heavily as the crowd roared, vibrating the walls around them. She wasn't upset that Gryffindor had won the cup so much as that she hadn't even had the chance to play in the match.  
"Well," Kerry shattered the silence in the locker room between the four girls, "at least your brother won."  
Rachel turned to look at her friend strangely, "that's the least-Slytherin-like thing I've ever heard you say."  
Kerry shrugged in response, dropping back into silence.  
After a moment, Rachel responded slowly, "you're right though. I guess... I guess I am glad Harry won it. Gryffindor had the better team on the field today."  
The three girls encompassed her with a heartfelt hug, before pulling her to her feet as the Slytherin team was heard returning from the pitch and into the tunnel.

The four girls sat against the wall facing the door of the locker room, and stared coolly at the team as they trudged in, defeated.  
The players took their seats around the room, faces dejected, eyes downcast. A silence descended upon the room for an eternity, before the captain stepped up.  
"We fought, and we lost," Flint began shortly, looking around at his frustrated team, "the plan... failed."  
There was a small murmuring of consent from around the room.  
"Mach," he turned to the green-eyed Chaser, "I- I'm sorry," he looked as though it pained him to say it. "I should have never changed the line up. We... we could have used you out there today. We would have won if you had played."

The team remained silent until Rachel cleared her throat, eyes steady and collected as she looked at him directly, "I'm one player. One player can't make a team. It's a collective effort. A team's success depends on the abilities of all its players. And if you think one player could have changed the results of the game, then that is why we lost."


	15. XV

"QUIET EVERYONE THE CAPTAIN WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A SPEECH!" George Weasley roared over the cheering of the Gryffindor crowd as the triumphant team was carried into the common room for the victory celebration.  
Oliver Wood was boosted onto a table in the middle of the room, clutching the silver Quidditch Cup, tears still streaming down his face.  
"I would just like to say, that this was a group effort, our team, we worked... so hard for this... for Gryffindor, for each other..." he was cut off when the crowd of Gryffindors cheered their appreciation.  
"Get up here, all of you!" he beckoned towards the rest of the team, whom were pushed up onto the table beside their captain by the crowd.   
Pushing the silver Cup into Harry's hands, he announced, "I would just like to thank our amazing Seeker, Harry-" the Gryffindors roared their agreement, "-for catching that Snitch when we needed it... you deserve this."  
Harry's words of thanks were lost to the screaming Gryffindors, "-couldn't have done it without the team, and you of course, Wood-" the roar slowly faded away in reaction to the strange expression that overcame the Gryffindor Seeker's face as he stared past the crowd towards the entrance of the common room. Collectively, the multitude turned to follow his gaze.  
Rachel Potter stood near the portrait entrance, a speck of green in a sea of red, face blank and unreadable.  
The crowd lapsed into an uncomfortable silence at her presence, all fully aware how different the game might had turned out had she played.  
Looking around at the crowd staring at her tensely, Rachel reached for a butterbeer from a table, the common room having been amply supplied by the Weasley twins for the celebration. Twisting off the top, she raised it towards the champions in a toast, "to the best Quidditch team at Hogwarts!"

The common room exploded.  
Cheering, shouting, applauding, toast followed toast, Wood sobbed, George and Angelina kissed, Hermione almost hugged Ron, Harry fought his way across the common room and wrapped his sister in a bone crushing embrace, the silver Cup traversed the common room, every Gryffindor eager to touch its shiny surface.

 

"If you wouldn't mind me asking," Wood said after the initial euphoria had passed, and he dropped into the seat beside Rachel, where she sat on a couch next to Harry, "but why the lineup change today?"  
Rachel sighed, "Flint said that it was supposed to be a surprise, that no one would expect it, and that he wanted to counter your three, lightweight Chasers with three heavyweight Chasers. He hoped it would confuse you enough to make mistakes."  
"I see," Wood nodded at the explanation of the strategy, "although, to be honest, it probably did more harm than good. If you had played, the game would have gone differently, I'll admit. We might have lost."  
Rachel shrugged in response, "dunno about that. I'm only one player, and Chasers don't catch the Snitch," she nodded in the direction of Harry.  
"One bloody brilliant player," Wood admitted, "we like our Potter enough, but having two would have been something else entirely."  
"Unfortunately for you, I'm in Slytherin."  
"Yes, unfortunately."

 

********************************

 

Gryffindor's bliss over their victory lasted throughout the week, as did Slytherin's ignominy at their loss. Marcus Flint continuously dealt with various members of his house criticizing his competency as captain for his last minute lineup changes, to the point where Rachel Potter snapped and hexed an angry seventh year Slytherin who berated the captain's decisions in front of everyone in the Great Hall during breakfast one morning. The seventh year had fled, clutching a broken, bloodied nose and overgrown tongue, while the entire school looked on in amazement. Professor McGonagall had threatened Rachel with detention for the use of magic on another student, until Professor Snape informed her that he would distribute discipline to members of his own house as he saw fit. His idea of discipline involved rewarding Rachel with fifty points to Slytherin.   
After the incident, however, all criticism and hate directed at Flint and the Slytherin Quidditch team ceased from all parts of the school. 

 

With the Gryffindor victory came the end of the Quidditch year, but despite the season having concluded, the sport never ended; as Rachel Potter was often seen on the Quidditch pitch, practicing her chasing, overseen by the watchful eye of Madam Hooch, as part of the tightened security around the castle. Members of the Slytherin team would occasionally join her, although many others would often go simply to watch her fly.  
On one occasion she asked Gryffindor Quidditch captain Oliver Wood to join her on the pitch. He had accepted her offer with delight, honored to personally fly with her. However, she hadn't informed him she was bringing Slytherin team captain Marcus Flint as well (who also was unaware of the Gryffindor's presence). The two captains had balked upon seeing each other, but Rachel Potter was able to smoothly convince the two enemies to put aside their hostility and house disagreements for a few hours to enjoy the sport that they all shared a common love for.  
As a result, the two captains had walked away from the experience with a newfound respect for the other.

 

*************************************

 

The Quidditch mania that gripped the school was attacked, besieged, and conquered by the end of year exams and the stress which they entailed. Numerous students were seen having panic attacks in the library or bursting into tears, inundated with heavy books and mountains of papers looming around them.

 

"She's been in there a while," Ron murmured under to his breath to Harry and Hermione. The three were standing at the end of Professor's Lupin's elaborate Defense Against the Dark Arts final exam, which involved each student traversing through a sort of obstacle course containing such creatures as Grindylows, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, and at the end in an old tree trunk, a boggart.  
"She's never seen her boggart before," Harry realized suddenly, as he stared at the old trunk where his sister had just entered a few moments ago.  
"Think she'll be alright?" Hermione questioned worriedly, still not over her encounter with her own boggart, which turned out to be Professor McGonagall informing her that she had failed everything. A horrific experience.  
"I hope-" Harry began, before a flash of brilliant green light was seen inside the trunk, along with a loud CRACK.  
Professor Lupin hurried over as the group of three stood staring. Rachel Potter emerged from the trunk, pale and shaking but triumphant, "I think I got it."  
"With Riddikulous?" Lupin asked in confusion, having seen the green light and heard the noise.  
"Oh," Rachel responded, a vacant look in her eyes, "dunno. But I got it somehow."  
"What was it?" Harry blurted out, curious to what his twin's worst fear was if it wasn't a dementor, but immediately regretted asking when she turned to look at him with such venom in her eyes that all four of them quickly passed over the subject and moved on.

 

****************************

 

"Rachel! I just, Trelawney just, oh my God, Voldemort-" Harry had crashed into her in the middle of the corridor as they both were returning from their last final examination.  
She stared at him in wonder, "did Trelawney prophecy something about Voldemort returning?"  
"Yes! She said his servant would return tonight! Do you think that means-"  
"Dunno," Rachel said as she followed him into the Gryffindor common room, where the twins found Ron and Hermione looking traumatized. Hermione held a small square of parchment up to them.  
"Buckbeak lost the appeal," Ron informed them quietly, ushering the thoughts of Trelawney's prophecy from their minds.  
A silence descended between the four before Harry announced urgently, "we've got to go down and see him!"  
"We're not allowed out of the castle at this hour though," Ron replied dully.  
"Do you have the cloak?" Rachel asked her brother.  
"Er, no I had to leave it, in the passageway coming back from Honeydukes that time..."  
"Really?" Rachel rolled her eyes in irritation, "I'll be right back," she turned on heel and marched out of the Gryffindor common room determinedly.

She was back in a matter of minutes, the invisibility cloak hidden under her robes.   
"We can sneak out after dinner."

 

*******************************

 

"I don't believe it -it's Scabbers!" Hermione let out a gasp of astonishment as she discovered the believed-to-be-dead rat hiding inside one of Hagrid's milk jugs. The group of four had successfully stolen out of the castle and down to Hagrid's as the sun had sunk below the horizon.  
"What?!"  
Hermione turned the jog upside down onto the table the group was sitting around and out came a squeaking Scabbers, looking miserable with tufts of fur falling out and his rib cage clearly showing.  
"I thought Crookshanks was supposed to have eaten him?" Rachel wondered aloud, staring at the struggling rat in Ron's hands.  
"Apparently not," Hermione voice was cool as Ron tried to calm his frantic rat down.

"They're coming," Hagrid said quietly, as he rose to watch Albus Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, an old Committee member, and a bleak executioner slowly approach his cabin.  
"Let's go!" Rachel threw the cloak over the four and Hagrid rushed them out of the cabin, despite the Gryffindors' feeble protests that they ought to stay and argue for Buckbeak's innocence.  
They four hurried up the slope away from the cabin and towards the castle, before Ron halted them all as he suddenly stopped, struggling with Scabbers.  
"Ron!"  
"It's Scabbers! He won't stay- He's gone mental-"  
"Let's move! We're too close!"  
"I can't hold him-"  
"Shut up!"  
They were silenced by the threatening swish and falling of the axe.   
"Oh my Merlin-"   
"They did it, I don't believe it, they did it."


	16. XVI

The group stood transfixed in shock until Scabbers sank his teeth into Ron's hand.  
"OUCH! He bit me!"  
"Ron, be quiet!"  
What's the matter with him?"  
"Crookshanks is the matter with him," Rachel pointed out the glaring yellow eyes of the cat, gleaming at the sound of the rat's struggle.  
"No, go away-" Hermione's cry was interrupted as the rat slipped out of Ron's hands and broke away, pursued by the Crookshanks. Ron threw the invisibility cloak off himself and ran after his pet frantically.  
"Idiot!" Rachel groaned as the three others sprinted after him.  
They came to a sudden stop as Ron managed to snatch his rat safely away from the bushy orange cat.  
"I thought you hated-" Rachel was cut off by pounding footsteps, and a huge black blur rushed past the group, heading for Ron. Rachel recognized the huge dog just as it wrapped its jaws around Ron's arm and began dragging him towards the trunk of a tree. She then recognized the tree.  
"Ron!" Harry yelled after him, as he was slipping out of sight, dragged by the dog into an opening beneath the roots of the tree, just as Rachel shouted, "run!" and the branches of the Whomping Willow whipped towards them with vengeance.  
While Harry and Hermione each took harsh impacts from the tree's branches and Rachel quickly maneuvered away from each branch (Quidditch skills can come in handy), there was a sickening crack as Ron was at last dragged out of sight.  
The group of now three dodged the vicious branches for a moment more before the tree suddenly froze.  
"Crookshanks?" Hermione said in awe. The cat had darted forward and pressed its paws on a knot on the trunk, effectively immobilizing the tree.  
"Let's go!" Rachel found herself urging yet again, as she led the group down the opening and into a dark tunnel.

"Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione panted as they followed the dim tunnel.  
"Dunno," Harry responded, "it's on the Marauder's Map. It's one of the passageways no one's ever gotten into for obvious reasons. But I'm guessing it leads to Hogsmeade."

"The Shrieking Shack," Rachel determined as she stepped through the opening at the end and into a dusty room.  
"How do you know?" Harry asked as he followed her into the room.  
"Look at it."  
Her twin observed the boarded up windows, the stained floor, the broken and destroyed furniture. "I don't think ghosts do this."  
"They don't," came the response, just as a creak was heard from an upper floor. The group exchanged glances before creeping up the dusty staircase and onto a landing which revealed one slightly ajar door at the end of the hallway.  
"Lights out, wands out," Rachel murmured, and the group extinguished their wands but kept them at the ready.  
Rachel slunk forward and kicked the door in roughly, revealing a purring Crookshanks and a terrified Ron.

"Ron, where's the rat? Where is it?" Rachel interrogated, as Harry and Hermione rushed over to him. They gave her a look of wild confusion.  
"Forget the rat, where's the dog?" Harry demanded.  
"Not a dog," Ron groaned painfully, "it's a trap. He's the dog... he's an Animagus."  
The door they had just entered closed with a snap as the group turned to stare at a filthy man looking very much like a corpse if it weren't for his gleaming eyes.  
"Expelliarmus!" and Harry's and Hermione's wands flew out of their hands. Rachel's wand, however, remained safely in her hand. Harry and Hermione stared.  
"What-" Harry began, before the man cut him off.  
"I thought you'd come and help your friend. Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful... it will make everything much easier..."  
Harry moved suddenly as if to make a charge at Sirius Black.  
"No, Harry!" Hermione whispered in terror.  
"If you want to kill them, you'll have to kill us too!" Ron announced with Gryffindor fortitude, struggling to support himself on his broken leg.  
"Lie down, you'll damage that leg even more."  
"Did you hear me-"  
"There'll only be one murder here tonight," Sirius Black announced, grinning devilishly.  
Rachel almost rolled her eyes.  
"Why's that?" Harry snarled viciously. "Didn't care last time did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew... What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"  
"Harry," Rachel said quietly before her brother blew his top.  
"HE KILLED MUM AND DAD!" before anyone could react Harry had lunged for Sirius Black and a violent scuffle ensued, assisted by Ron and Hermione. Rachel watched, unsure whether or not to jump in.

It ended as Harry snatched his wand back and ordered Ron and Hermione out of the way. The two scrambled away, and Harry aimed his wand where Black was slumped against the wall, defenseless.  
"Going to kill me, Harry?" he said quietly.  
"You killed our parents!" Harry's voice shook.  
"No, Harry," Hermione and Ron gasped in disbelief as Rachel stepped forward, her wand aiming not at Black, but at her own brother, "he didn't."  
Harry stared at his sister with wild eyes as her wand pointed directly at his heart, just as his pointed at Black's. Her eyes burned a brilliant green as they stared into his. He remembered the last time he had seen her eyes burn so. It had been just before he had sunk the Sword of Gryffindor into the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.  
"Rach... what are you doing?" he questioned his sister in a low voice, but keeping his wand aimed at Black.  
"The same thing everyone else here is doing," she replied in a cool voice, "using violence to express emotion without thinking rationally about the situation."  
Sirius Black barked a short laugh, causing Harry to turn back to him. "Rachel, always astute. Although it surprises me that you haven't told Harry what you know already."  
"He wouldn't have listened anyways," Rachel responded, keeping her wand aimed at her brother who was staring between her and Black with astonishment.  
"What do you know?!" Harry demanded, looking at his twin.  
"More of the whole story. More than what you do," Sirius responded from the floor.  
"The whole story? You sold Mum and Dad to Voldemort. That's all I need to know," Harry seethed furiously.  
"You don't understand-"  
"I understand a lot better than you think-"  
"No you don't, you never noticed-" Rachel began in an irritated voice before footsteps were suddenly heard from the floor below, and Hermione screamed, "WE'RE UP HERE! WE'RE UP HERE -SIRIUS BLACK- QUICK!"  
Before anyone could react, the door of the room was thrown open by a pale looking Professor Lupin, wand at ready. He scanned the room, observing the terrified Ron and Hermione, Harry, with his wand aimed steadily at a defenseless Sirius Black, while Rachel aimed her wand threateningly at her own brother.   
"Expelliarmus!" Lupin shouted, and Harry's wand flew from his hand, while Rachel's, however, remained.   
"Where is he, Sirius?" Lupin asked suddenly.  
Black stared at Lupin for a moment before silently pointing across the room at Ron.   
Lupin began muttering to himself under his breath, "but then... why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless... unless he was the one... unless you switched... without telling me?"  
Everyone stared at Black as he slowly nodded to Lupin's query.  
"What's going on-" Harry began, before trailing off as Lupin lowered his wand, walked towards Black, helped him up and embraced him warmly.  
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione suddenly screamed. "YOU-YOU-YOU AND HIM!"  
"Hermione, calm down-"  
"I DIDN'T TELL ANYONE! I'VE BEEN COVERING UP FOR YOU-"  
"Hermione, listen!" Lupin begged as Harry exploded.  
"I TRUSTED YOU! AND ALL THE TIME YOU'VE BEEN HIS FRIEND!"  
"You're wrong, I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now -let me explain-"  
"NO! HARRY DON'T TRUST HIM, HE'S BEEN HELPING BLACK GET INTO THE CASTLE, HE WANTS YOU DEAD TOO -HE'S A WEREWOLF!"  
A palpable silence descended upon the room as everyone looked at Lupin. That is, until Rachel began laughing slowly. Everyone then turned to stare at her in confusion.  
"I bet you've known since Snape's essay, haven't you Hermione? Did you check the lunar calendar? And the boggart? Good job on that part, but yet you took two and two and somehow got eight."  
Lupin nodded at her, "you're right, Rachel. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle, and I certainly don't want Harry dead. But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."  
"You knew?!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione all shouted at Rachel, who looked back at them coolly.  
"Yes. Because two plus two is four."  
"Why didn't you tell the staff?"  
"Because they already know," Lupin answered.  
"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf?" Ron gaped, "is he mad?"  
"Some of the staff thought so," Lupin responded, "he had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy-"  
"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry exploded, "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!" he pointed across the room at Black, who quickly moved across the room to sit on the four poster bed.  
"I have not been helping Sirius-" Lupin began until Rachel cut him off quickly.  
"He's right, he wasn't helping Sirius," she looked around the room tensely before continuing, "I was."  
"WHAT?" everyone now turned to stare at her in bewilderment, save Sirius himself, who let out a twisted smile.  
"The tunnel door onto the Quidditch pitch," she explained, "after the first time he followed us in that way, I just left it unlocked."  
"WHAT! WHY?! HE WANTS TO KILL-"  
"SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO THE WHOLE STORY! HARRY, HOW DID YOU NEVER NOTICE PETER PETTIGREW ON THE MAP?"  
"PETER PETTIGREW'S DEAD! HE KILLED HIM!" Harry pointed furiously to where Black sat.  
"The Map never lies!" Lupin's voice rang out.  
"How do you know?"  
"I helped write it. I'm Moony, that was my friend's nickname for me at school."  
"You wrote-"  
"The important thing is, I was watching it tonight because I had an idea you four would sneak off to visit Hagrid. And I was right, wasn't I? And even if you were wearing James' old cloak you still show up on the Map. I watched you enter Hagrid's hut, but you left accompanied by someone else."  
"What? No were weren't!" Harry argued.  
"Yes, we were!" Rachel's voice sang as if she had finally solved a problem that was troubling her.  
"I thought the Map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"  
"No one was with us!"  
"Then I saw another dot, labeled Sirius Black, collide with you, and I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow."  
"One of us!" Ron's voice was angry.  
"No, two of you."  
"The rat, Ron," Rachel's voice was calm as she looked at him with glowing eyes.  
"What? What's Scabbers got to do with it?"  
"Everything," Lupin replied, "could I see him, please?"  
Ron hesitatingly removed a thrashing Scabbers from his pocket, "what's my rat got to do with anything?" he asked anxiously as the entire room stared at the flailing rodent.  
"That's not a rat," Black said from across the room.  
"What d'you mean -of course he's a rat-"  
"No, he's not," Lupin said lowly, "he's a wizard."  
"An Animagus," Black declared harshly.  
Rachel jumped in, "-known as Peter Pettigrew!"

"You're mental!" Ron said weakly, "all of you!"  
"Have they put you under a spell or something?" Harry exploded, staring at his sister before pointing once more at Black, "he killed Pettigrew twelve years ago!"  
"I meant to," Sirius growled, "but little Peter got the better of me... not this time, though!" and he lunged across the room towards the squeaking rat.  
"Sirius, NO!" Lupin shouted, dragging him away, "WAIT! You can't do it just like that -they need to understand- we've got to explain-"  
"We can explain afterwards!" Black snapped, trying to throw Lupin off.  
"They've got a right -to know-everything! Ron kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand! And the twins, you owe the twins the full truth, Harry doesn't know any of it, and Rachel's only pieced together what she can!"  
Sirius stopped grappling at this. "All right then. Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."  
"You're all nutters!" Ron announced, "I've had enough of this, I'm off." He attempted to stand with his injured leg until Lupin aimed his wand at him.  
"You're going to hear me out, Ron. Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen."  
"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron shouted, swaying from his exclamation, causing Harry to push him back onto the bed before he turned to Lupin with the question;  
"there were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die, a whole street full of them..."  
"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" Black snarled, eyes on the struggling rat.  
"Everyone thought they saw Sirius kill Peter, even I did. Until I saw him on the Map tonight," Lupin added with a nod.  
"I've seen him on the Map more than once," Rachel agreed, looking at the three other third years who stared back at her in wild confusion, not sure where she stood on the whole matter, "he was always in Gryffindor Tower, near Ron."  
"But... but people would know if Peter Pettigrew was an Animagus," Hermione ventured timidly, "the Ministry keeps track of witches and wizards who can become animals. There's a register, Mach, you know that. And there's only been seven Animagi in this century."  
"Seven registered Animagi," Rachel pointed out, "if Sirius is a dog, and Lupin, Pettigrew, and Dad were all friends, it makes sense if the others were Animagi."  
Everyone turned to stare at her as Lupin laughed in astonishment, "brilliant, Rachel. And you're right about the register, Hermione, but the Ministry never knew that three unregistered Animagi were running around Hogwarts."  
"Get a move on, Remus. I've waited twelve years for this," Sirius snarled suddenly.  
"All right, but you'll need to help me, Sirius."  
Just then the door to the room edged open on its own accord. The room stopped and stared at the empty space, before Lupin walked over, and reported nothing amiss.  
"This place is haunted!" Ron shivered.  
"No, it's not. It never was, the shrieks and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me... See, I was a very small boy when I received the bite, my parents tried everything, but there was no cure then. The Wolfsbane Potion Professor Snape has been making for me, as Rachel keenly discovered, is fairly recent... So long as I take it I keep my mind, a harmless wolf. But before it was discovered I became a full fledged monster every month, and it seemed impossible for me to come to Hogwarts. But Dumbledore was sympathetic... thus the Whomping Willow was planted because I came to school here. The tunnel from it to this house was built for my use, where I would be smuggled once a month to stop anyone from coming upon me when I was dangerous. The noises the villagers heard were from me, although they thought they were hearing violent spirits."  
"I had three great friends at Hogwarts, Sirius Black... Peter Pettigrew... and of course, James Potter. They noticed my disappearances, and eventually they worked out the truth. Instead of deserting me, they became Animagi, and would accompany me during my transformations... which turned into excursions between the four of us, and our adventures led us to design the Marauder's Map and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."  
"What sort of animal-"  
"Shh Harry!" Rachel shushed her twin immediately, urging Lupin to continue.  
"I sometimes felt guilty for betraying Dumbledore's trust, that I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally... and all this year I've been battling with myself, wondering if I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I was too cowardly. It would have meant that I had been betraying his trust since I was at school. And Dumbledore's trust meant everything to me. So I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort... so, in a way, Snape's been right about me all along."  
"Snape?" Black said severely, "what's Snape got to do with it?"  
"He's here, Sirius. He's teaching here as well," Lupin turned to the four students, "Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons... you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick that involved me-"  
"It served him right," Black sneered, "sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled..."  
"Severus was very interested in where I went every month. We were in the same year, you know, and we -er- didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James' talent on the Quidditch field... anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening. Sirius thought it would be... amusing- to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Of course he tried it -if he got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf -but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life. Snape glimpsed me though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was."  
"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," Harry realized slowly, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"

"That's right," a cold voice suddenly came from behind Lupin, and Severus Snape was revealed, pulling off the invisibility cloak, wand aimed at Lupin.


	17. XVII

Hermione screamed, Ron flinched, still holding his rat, Rachel leapt back several feet, Black bolted to his feet, Lupin backed away suddenly, and Harry jumped in shock.

"Very useful, Potter, I thank you," Snape said coldly, casting aside the invisibility cloak, "and very useful was the certain map I observed on your desk, Lupin, as I was taking your potion to your office. One glance was all I needed to know."  
"Severus-"  
"I've told the headmaster you've been helping your friend Black into the castle, Lupin. And here's the proof."  
"Severus, you're making a mistake, you haven't heard everything-"  
"Two more for Azkaban tonight," Snape was ecstatic, "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this... He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin... a tame werewolf-"   
"You fool. Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back in Azkaban?"  
With a loud bang, cords erupted from Snape's wand and wound themselves around Lupin. In response, Black lunged toward Snape, halting abruptly when Snape pointed his wand straight at him.  
"Give me a reason to do it and I swear I will," Snape's whisper was insidious, stopping Black cold.

"Professor Snape," Hermione began weakly, "it wouldn't hurt to hear what-"   
"Miss Granger you are already facing suspension from this school. The four of you are out of bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf."  
"But if-"  
"KEEP QUIET!" Snape roared, before turning to Black, "vengeance is very sweet. How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..."  
"The joke's on you again, Snape. As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle, I'll come quietly."  
"Up to the castle? I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black... pleased enough to-"  
"Professor!" Rachel stepped forward, eyes ablaze and wand at the ready, "you're making a mistake!"  
"Keep quiet, Miss Potter, I never make mistakes!" Snape hissed, a flick of his wand and her wand was sent sailing towards him. He caught it before snapping his fingers, causing the cords binding Lupin to fly to his hands, "come on, all of you. I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too."  
Harry immediately strode across the room and blocked the door furiously as Rachel's eyes smoldered.  
"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already. If I hadn't been here to save your skin-"  
"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry exploded, "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN-"  
"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape roared, "like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee -now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"  
Without realizing that she had no wand, Rachel, standing behind Snape, had raised her hand, just as Harry raised his wand. With furious eyes, concentrating, just as she had in the Chamber of Secrets, a burst of energy shot down her arm and out of her outstretched hand, emitting a green light, just as Harry shouted, "Expelliarmus!" With a blast that shook the entire house, Snape was lifted up and slammed across the room against the wall, unconscious.

"Oh my Merlin!" Hermione gasped, staring at the twins.  
"You shouldn't have done that," Black said, looking between them.  
"Mach, how did you do that?" Ron demanded, staring at her. She ignored him and snatched up her wand where it had clattered to the floor.  
"Can we get on with this now?" she said sharply, looking at the scrabbling rat in Ron's hands.  
Lupin nodded,"we may as well." He turned to Sirius, "how did you find out where Peter was?"  
In response he quickly pulled out a crumpled old paper, and showed it to them. On it was the picture of the Weasley family while they were in Egypt over the summer, showing Scabbers on Ron's shoulder, "Fudge gave me his paper when he came to inspect Azkaban. There was Peter, on the front page on this boy's shoulder... I knew him at once. How many times had I seen him transform? And the caption said the boy would be going back to Hogwarts... to where the twins were."  
"My God... his front paw..." Lupin's voice was quiet with awe.  
"What about it?" Ron asked defensively.  
"He's got a toe missing," Black announced in triumph.  
"Of course... so simple... so brilliant... he cut it off himself?" Lupin asked slowly.  
"Just before he transformed," Black said, "when I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I had betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself -and sped down the sewer with the other rats..."  
"The only thing they ever found of Pettigrew was his finger," Rachel's voice was low.  
"Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages-"  
"Twelve years," Rachel stated as though this fact summarized the entire events of the evening.  
"We-We've been taking good care of him!" Ron was clinging to scraps.  
"Not looking too good right now, though," Lupin observed, "I'd guess he's been losing weight since he heard Sirius was on the loose again."  
"He's been scared of that mad cat!" Ron pointed across the room at Crookshanks.  
"This cat isn't mad," Black stroked Crookshanks, "he recognized Peter for what he was and knew I was no dog. He's one of the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met. Crookshanks tried to bring Peter to me, even stealing the passwords to Gryffindor tower for me. But Peter faked his death again..."  
"And why did he do that?" Harry seethed, still upset, "because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed our parents? Rachel, how can you believe this-"  
"Harry, you don't understand-"  
"-now he's come back to finish Pettigrew off!"  
"Who cares!" Rachel snapped in irritation at her brother's failure to see the truth, "Sirius was sentenced because he was supposed to have betrayed Mum and Dad, then killed Peter Pettigrew and a bunch of Muggles. But Pettigrew's alive-"  
"HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"  
"I as good as killed them," Black's voice was quiet, "I persuaded them at the last moment to change to Peter, to use him as their Secret Keeper instead of me. So, yes, I'm to blame... the night they died, I'd went to check on Peter, but when I arrived, he was gone, no sign of a struggle. I went to your parents' house straight away, and I saw their house, destroyed, their bodies.... I realized what Peter must had done..." his voice broke off suddenly as he turned away from the group.  
"Enough," Lupin announced, stepping in, "there's only one way to prove this all. Ron, give me the rat!"  
Hesitating, Ron held out the struggling rat to Lupin, who took it.  
"Ready, Sirius?"  
"Together?"  
"I think so... one, two, THREE!" a flash of blinding light and suddenly, a small man was standing where Scabbers the rat had just been.  
"Well, hello, Peter. Long time, no see."  
"S-Sirius... R-Remus... my old friends!" the short man squeaked, eyes darting around the room. The room stared at him with a mixture of disgust, shock, and hate on their faces.  
"We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night James and Lily died," Remus informed him coolly.  
"Remus! You don't believe him, do you? He tried to kill me! He's come back to kill me! He killed James and Lily and now he's come to kill me! Remus... you've got the help me!"  
"No one's going to kill you until we've cleared some things up," Remus told him quietly.  
"I knew he'd come for me! I've been waiting for this for twelve years!"  
"You knew Sirius was going to break out of Azkaban when no one else has before?"  
"He's got dark powers the rest of us can only dream of! I supposed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named taught him a few tricks!"  
"Voldemort teach me tricks!" Sirius barked raucously, causing Peter to flinch, "you haven't been hiding from me for twelve years, you've been hiding from Voldemort's supporters!"  
"If Voldemort's supporters were after me, it was because I put one of their best men in Azkaban -the spy, Sirius Black!"  
"How dare you," Black's voice was deadly, "I, a spy for Voldemort? When did I ever sneak around with people who were stronger and more powerful than myself? But you- you always liked big friends to look after you, didn't you?"  
"Me?" Pettigrew stuttered, "a spy? Don't know how you can say such a-"  
"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it," Black snarled, "it was the perfect plan, who would suspect a weak, talentless thing like you? It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."  
"And..." Rachel broke in quickly, "he's never done anything to Harry and I, having been around us for years, because....?" she let the question hang and Sirius grabbed it eagerly.  
"Because there was nothing in it for him, of course. With Voldemort half dead, why commit murder right under Dumbledore's nose, since his old master wasn't the biggest bully on the playground. So he found a wizarding family to take him in, and kept an ear out for any news, in case his old protector regained strength and it was safe to rejoin him."  
"And how did you get out of Azkaban?" Rachel posed the next question, and Peter nodded frantically, "thank you!"  
Sirius was slow to answer this one, frowning in thought, "I don't know how I did it... but I don't think I ever lost my mind because I knew I was innocent... the dementors couldn't steal that from me... and when I transformed... the dementors couldn't sense my emotions, less complex when I'm a dog... and when I saw Peter in that picture, I realized he was at Hogwarts, with you and Harry... perfectly positioned to act, if one hint reached his ears that the Dark Side was gathering strength again... ready to strike at the moment he could be sure of allies... and deliver the last Potters to him... and he'd be welcomed back with honors... so you see, I had to do something. So one night, I slipped past the dementors as a dog, and swam north. I've lived in the forest ever since, except when I came to watch Quidditch, you both fly just like your father you know. Although it came as a bit of a shock to me, when I realized Rachel was in Slytherin... But I never betrayed Lily and James, I would have died before I betrayed them."  
The room fell silent. Rachel looked at her twin with pleading eyes. He looked at her, then to Sirius, before slowly nodding, "I believe you."  
"No!" Peter shrieked, and threw himself at the feet of all in the room, pleading for understanding but receiving it from none. He at last turned to where Harry and Rachel stood, staring at him in disgust.  
"Harry... Rachel... your parents wouldn't have wanted this-" upon his statement to them, Sirius exploded.  
"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO THE TWINS! HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES AND LILY IN FRONT OF THEM!" and Black and Lupin dashed forward, seizing Peter and throwing him backwards.  
"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort, do you deny it?" Black shook with fury.  
"I never meant it to happen, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me-"  
"DON'T LIE! YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED!"  
"You don't understand! He would have killed me!"  
"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"  
"You should have realized," Remus began, as he and Sirius raised their wands, "that if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Good bye, Peter."  
"NO!" Harry and Rachel shouted simultaneously, and Black and Lupin turned to them in shock.  
"This piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Black hissed, "his own stinking skin means more to him than your whole family!"  
"I know," Harry began, "but let's take him to castle, hand him over to the dementors. Send him to Azkaban. But don't kill him."  
Pettigrew let out a sob and threw himself at the twins' feet. Black and Lupin lowered their wands slowly.  
"You're the only two who have the right to decide, but think of what he did..." Black began.  
"If anyone deserves Azkaban, he does," Harry replied, then looked at his twin, "I don't think Dad would have wanted his best friends to become killers, just for him."  
Rachel looked at him steadily for a moment before nodding, and adding to the argument, "don't you see?" she looked between Black and Lupin, "he's evidence. Of what actually happened that night. The world ought to know the truth, not the tale the media and the Ministry has spun."  
Black and Lupin looked at each other for a moment before each nodded.

"I'm going to tie him up," Lupin told the twins and they stepped away from Pettigrew.  
"But if you transform, Peter," Black began threateningly, "we will kill you."  
"If he transforms, I'll kill him," Rachel stated savagely, staring down at the now bound and gagged figure of Peter Pettigrew, "and don't you forget that."

 

"What about Professor Snape?" Hermione ventured, looking over at his motionless figure, after Lupin had set Ron's leg as best he could.  
"I don't think there's anything seriously wrong with him," Lupin responded after checking his pulse, he shot a glance at Rachel, "although I've never seen that sort of wandless magic before."  
The room turned to look at her as she lowered her eyes vacantly, "I dunno," the only explanation she offered.  
"The green light-" Hermione began, eyes wide, "is that... how you killed the boggart?"  
"Maybe. I don't know," Rachel snapped, trying to avoid the topic.  
"And in the Chamber of Secrets-" Harry began quickly.  
"Let's get out of here already!"


	18. XVIII

"You know," Sirius looked at the twins while the motley group made their way through the tunnel from the Shrieking Shack, "your parents weren't expecting twins. Lily thought she was having a girl, James thought it would be a boy. No one expected both, so we were all a bit surprised when that's what happened. So surprised in fact, I don't know if anyone has told you this, but since there weren't really many other options... your parents decided to name me godfather to both of you..."  
"Oh, we know," the twins responded at the same time.  
"Well... James and Lily appointed me guardian to you two... if anything ever happened to them...."  
The twins looked at each other, images of the Dursleys flashing before their eyes.  
"I'll understand, of course, if you two would want to stay with your aunt and uncle, but once my name's cleared-"  
Rachel almost choked on laughter while Harry looked as though he had won the Cup all over again, "what- live with you? Leave the Dursleys?"  
"Of course, I thought you wouldn't want to, I understand-"  
"Are you insane? I told you not to kill Pettigrew for a reason," Rachel announced, "We can't stand them. Harry hates them and they know it. I hate them, but they don't know that."  
"Of course we want to leave the Dursleys!" Harry added, "have you got a house? When can we move in?"  
In response, Sirius forgot about floating Snape in front of him and turned and beamed widely at the twins, his first genuine smile in twelve years.

 

"He didn't take his potion!" Rachel gasped, as the group exited the tunnel onto the grounds and were bathed in stark moonlight. As the lunar light fell upon Remus Lupin, he began transforming with a howl.  
"Run, now!" Sirius ordered Rachel, Harry, and Hermione, pushing them away from the werewolf before transforming himself into the large black dog and leaping towards were Ron and Pettigrew were still manacled to Lupin.  
With a rippling of muscle and fur, the werewolf wrenched itself free from the manacles before being charged and seized about the neck by the black dog. Immediately, Pettigrew dove for Lupin's wand, as Ron painfully collapsed on his injured leg. With a loud bang from the wand, Ron was motionless.  
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted at Pettigrew, sending the seized wand flying. But the animagus once again fled from the situation by transforming.  
"NO!" Rachel screamed, then there was a burst of blinding green light followed by a loud explosion, and the area she had thrown out her hand to had gone up in a miniature whirlwind of emerald fire. The flames licked the night eagerly, but she knew she had failed. Pettigrew had escaped, yet again.

"What did he do to him?" Hermione cradled Ron's head in her hands, worrying over his motionless figure.  
"Dunno," Harry responded, staring not at Ron but at his sister, before jerking his head up at the sound of a canine whimpering.  
"Sirius," the twins breathed simultaneously. The group of now three, cast a glance at a motionless Ron, then sped off into the darkness towards the lake.

 

"No, no, no, NO!" Rachel let out a scream as the group came to a halt, the temperature around them plummeted, and they stared in horror at the mass of hooded dementors approaching the spot where Sirius had transformed back into a human.  
"THINK OF SOMETHING HAPPY!" Harry shouted at the two girls.  
"WHAT?!" Hermione shrieked, face pale.  
"I'VE NEVER CONJURED A PATRONUS BEFORE!" Rachel screamed.  
"JUST TRY!" Harry roared, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" and a weak, formless mist of silver formed from the end of his wand. It momentarily halted the approaching dementors, until it dissipated, and they continued their approach.  
Next to Rachel, Hermione fainted, crumbling to the ground in a heap, and the nearest dementors began to lower their hoods. The twins stared in horror at the gray faces, with no eye sockets and sucking holes for mouths. The cold was petrifying, the air clammy and foggy, the dementors swirling around them, coming, coming, reaching for them.  
Someone was screaming, someone was laughing, there was crying, roaring, shouting, chaos.  
Rachel, no-  
Not Harry-  
Stand aside-  
Please-  
A dementor reached for Harry, grabbing him by the neck, as Rachel slipped through their grasps, falling to the ground alongside Hermione and Sirius. As her hands hit the ground, a brilliant burst of green light exploded, its rays engulfing the group. While across the lake, a graceful silver figure galloped over to join the emerald rays, as Harry collapsed to the ground next to his twin.

But the dementors were leaving. The twins slowly raised their heads to catch a glimpse of the silvery animal trotting magnificently through the green rays with glorious synergy, before all strength failed and blackness overcame their surroundings.


	19. XIX

"...what amazes me most is the behavior of the dementors... you've really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?"  
"No, Minister... by the time I had come around they were heading back to their positions at the entrances..."  
"Extraordinary. And yet Black, the Potters, and the girl-"  
"All unconscious by the time I reached them. I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle."  
Rachel opened her eyes, sitting up with a jolt. Looking about her, she saw Harry lying in a bed next to her, eyes wide open, listening intently. Hermione lay in the bed on her other side, also awake and listening. She pointed to the open door of the hospital wing, where Snape's and Cornelius Fudge's voices carried through.  
"Ah, you're all awake," Madam Pomfrey scurried over with a large brick of chocolate.  
"Madam Pomfrey, we need to see Professor Dumbledore immediately," Rachel said, jumping out of the bed and to her feet.  
"It's all right, they've got Black. He's locked away upstairs. The dementors will be performing the kiss any moment now."  
"WHAT?!" Harry, Rachel, and Hermione all shouted together. Their voices carried out the open doors and Fudge and Snape entered the wing.  
"What's all this about?" Cornelius Fudge questioned, approaching their beds.  
"Minister, listen," Harry began urgently, "Sirius Black's innocent! Peter Pettigrew faked his own death! We saw him tonight! Sirius is innocent!"  
"Harry, you're very confused, I'm sure you've been through quite an ordeal tonight, we've got everything under control."  
"YOU HAVEN'T! YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN!" Harry exploded.  
"Minister, listen, please!" Hermione begged, "I was there, it was Ron's rat, he's an Animagus, and-"  
"You see, Minister," Snape cut in, "confunded. Black's done a very good job-"  
"Professor, we are by no means under any spell of Black's. I was there as well, and Sirius Black is innocent. Peter Pettigrew framed him-" Rachel was cut off by Madam Pomfrey angrily demanding the pair leave.  
"I must insist that you leave, Minister, Professor. These students are my patients and should not be distressed-"  
"We're not distressed, we're trying to tell them what happened!" Harry snapped angrily.  
The door to the hospital wing opened once more and Albus Dumbledore strode in.  
"Professor Dumbledore-"  
"Headmaster, I must insist-"  
"My apologies, Poppy, but I need a word with the Potters and Miss Granger," Dumbledore announced, "I have just been to see Sirius Black-"  
"And I supposed he's told you the same fairy tale he's planted in their minds? About a rat, and Peter Pettigrew being alive-" Snape hissed angrily.  
"That indeed, is Black's story."  
"And does my evidence count for nothing?" Snape demanded, "Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack nor did I see him on the grounds-"  
"That's because you were knocked out, Professor. You missed that part," Rachel informed him smoothly.  
"I would like to speak to the students alone. Cornelius, Severus, Poppy, please leave us. This cannot wait," Dumbledore announced, and the three reluctantly departed the bedsides.

"Professor, Black's telling the truth!" the three burst into explanation at the same time once the others had left.  
"Pettigrew escaped when Professor Lupin transformed-"  
"Pettigrew attacked Ron, not Sirius!"

Dumbledore raised a hand to quiet them, "there is not a single shred of proof to support Black's story, except the word of three thirteen year old wizards. And no, Rachel, a silver-tongued explanation will not convince anyone in this case. I myself gave evidence that Sirius had been the Potter's Secret Keeper, along with a street full of eyewitnesses."  
"They switched-" she began to argue until Dumbledore raised his hand again to silence her.  
"You must see that Professor Snape's version of events is far more convincing than yours."  
"But he hates Sirius!"  
"Sirius Black has not acted like an innocent man. The attack on the Fat Lady -entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife... (at this Rachel bit her lip and refused to look Dumbledore in the eye) without Pettigrew, alive or dead, we have no chance of overturning Sirius's sentence."

"But you believe us? You believe he's innocent?" Rachel asked desperately, voicing what the others were thinking.  
"Yes I do," Dumbledore responded gravely, "but I have no power to make others see the truth, or overrule the Minister... What we need however," he turned to Hermione, "is more time."  
"Oh!" she gasped suddenly.  
"Now, Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember this, you must not be seen."  
He looked at them for a moment before turning and heading for the door, "I am going to lock you in. It is five minutes to midnight, three turns should do it. Good luck."  
"What's he talking about?" Harry began, before his sister shushed him, looking at Hermione.  
"Come here, quick!" Hermione muttered, pulling a golden chain from around her neck, tossing it over the twins necks.  
"What-"  
Hermione turned the tiny hourglass three times, and suddenly their surroundings blurred, spinning wildly for a moment, before their feet hit ground, in the entrance hall near the front doors.  
"What?!" Harry exclaimed again, looking around wildly.  
Hermione dragged the two into a deserted broom closet, before removing the chain from their necks.  
"We've gone back in time, three hours back," she began.  
"It's a Time-Turner Harry," Rachel whispered, as footsteps were heard outside the door, "that's us out there. Going down to Hagrid's."  
"It's how I've been getting to my classes all year," Hermione explained, "McGonagall made me swear not to tell anybody, but Mach found out about it, of course."  
"It was kind of obvious..."  
"Three hours, though, why three hours?" Hermione questioned, listening intently to the retreating footsteps.  
"We're probably supposed to change something that happens... we were going to Hagrid's three hours ago..."  
"Innocent lives," Rachel breathed, eyes widening, "Buckbeak."  
"How is this going to help Sirius, though?" her brother questioned.  
"Do you even play Quidditch?"  
"We'll fly Buckbeak up to the window where Sirius is, and rescue him! They can escape together!" Hermione announced, looking terrified at her own realization.  
"Can we manage that? It'll be a miracle!" Harry groaned at the task before them.  
"We've got to try, haven't we?" Rachel declared, pushing open the closet door, "let's make a run for the forest, now!"

The three watched themselves, slip out from the cloak and enter Hagrid's hut. They spied Buckbeak, tied to the fence outside the hut.  
"Should we get him now?" Harry asked, eyeing the hippogriff.  
"No, we have to let the Committee people see him, so they don't think Hagrid set him free," Rachel responded in a hushed voice, eyes staring at the scene intently.  
"This is going to be impossible..." Harry moaned as the sound of breaking china was heard from the hut and Hermione's shriek at finding Scabbers was heard.  
"What if we busted in and grabbed Pettigrew?" Harry said, eyes wide.  
"Do you remember that happening while we were in there? Did you, me, and Hermione bust in and grab the rat?" Rachel demanded, looking at her brother.  
"Well... no..."  
"Then we're not bloody doing it."  
"Look!" Hermione pointed to where Dumbledore, Fudge, the executioner, and the Committee member were approaching. Immediately, the back door of the hut opened and Harry, Ron, Rachel, and Hermione stepped out, throwing the cloak over themselves. The flattened grass revealed their fleeing presence.  
"Where is the beast?" the executioner questioned, now inside Hagrid's hut.  
"Outside," came the response, and an ugly face appeared at the window, glaring at Buckbeak.  
"We have to read you the official notice of execution, Hagrid -Macnair, you're supposed to listen too, that's procedure-" the face disappeared back inside.  
"Go, now!" Rachel urged Harry, who sprinted towards the Hippogriff. The two girls watched, barely breathing, as Harry bowed to Buckbeak, who returned the bow. He hurriedly untied the rope and urged the suddenly stubborn hippogriff away.  
"Well, let's get this over with..." the voice came from the cabin, and footsteps moved towards the door. Rachel groaned as her brother suddenly froze, staring at the door, expecting the whole plan to go up in flames immediately.  
"One moment, Macnair," Dumbledore's voice halted the steps, "I need to sign as well."  
Rachel darted out from the trees, running forward, she grabbed the rope and urged the hippogriff forward. Buckbeak broke into a slow canter. Neither of the three exhaled until they reached the safety of the shadowy trees.  
"Shh!" Hermione whispered, the three stopped, clutching Buckbeak's rope tightly as the door to Hagrid's cabin finally banged open.  
"Where is it?" came a voice.  
"It was tied here! I saw it! It was here!" the executioner snarled.  
"How extraordinary," Dumbledore's voice was quietly amused, and the ax swished through the air, landing with a heavy thud on Hagrid's fence, as the executioner expressed his anger. The three watching with the hippogriff almost laughed at the explanation for the ax swing.  
"Gone! Bless his little beak, he's gone! Musta pulled himself free! The clever boy!" Hagrid was sobbing.  
"We ought to search the grounds!" the executioner was furious.  
"If someone had untied him, do you really think the thief will have led him away on foot? Search the skies if you will," Dumbledore informed him jovially.

 

"Now what?" Harry whispered, after the group had dispersed from Hagrid's hut.  
"Hide here, until it's safe to fly up to Sirius's window. Not for a couple more hours," Hermione muttered.  
"We need to be able to see the Whomping Willow, so we know what's happening," Rachel announced, Harry nodded in agreement.

"Look, there's Ron!" Harry announced, as they skirted around the edge of the forest, the observed Ron dash after his fleeing pet, followed by Rachel, Harry, and Hermione. They watched the large dog dash over and seize Ron, dragging him down under the Willow, while it lashed out at the others. Soon, it froze, and the other three dashed into the tunnel.

 

"There goes Lupin," Harry observed again. The group watched as Lupin sprinted over, prodded the knot with a long branch, and disappear down the tunnel.   
"And the cloak's just lying there," Rachel sighed helplessly.  
"If I went over now, and grabbed it, Snape-"  
"Harry! Remember! As Rachel explained earlier, that didn't happen!" Hermione reminded him.  
"We're just watching it happen though!"  
"As we're supposed to be doing!" Rachel said with another sigh. "Remember why we're actually here? To save Sirius, not change the course of events that already happened."  
Immediately, Snape emerged from the castle doors, heading towards the Willow. Harry growled when he grabbed the cloak and disappeared down the tunnel after Lupin.

"Now we wait," Hermione announced, tying Buckbeak to a nearby tree and settling on the ground, looking thoughtful.  
"There something I don't understand... why didn't the dementors get Sirius? I remember them coming, but then I passed out..."  
Rachel and Harry joined her on the ground, before casting a glance at the other.   
"You remember how you asked, if that green light, was how I killed the boggart during Lupin's final?" Rachel began slowly.  
Hermione nodded, "and that green fire you just sort of... conjured... without a wand..."  
"Well," Rachel took a deep breath, looking at her brother, "that's why we don't talk about the Chamber of Secrets."  
"What?"  
"Rach... sort of did the same thing in the Chamber, when we were fighting the basilisk... before I stabbed it. Riddle had our wands, but Rach managed to, er, conjure this green... energy... and it surrounded the basilisk, distracting it long enough for me to grab the sword and stab it."  
Hermione mouth had fallen open, "is that how the dementors went away then?"  
"Well, not entirely," Rachel began, "there was something else there too... a real Patronus..."  
"Really?" Hermione asked in awe, "who conjured it?"  
Rachel and Harry looked at each other.   
"Did you see whoever did it?" she questioned further.  
"No..." Rachel began.  
"It must have been a really powerful wizard... couldn't you see-?"  
"Yeah, we saw him... it might have been imagined though..." Harry trailed off.  
"Who do you think it was?"  
"I think... I think it was our dad," Harry swallowed.  
"Harry..."  
"We know he's dead," Rachel added quickly, "but... it really did look like him..."  
"Was it his ghost?"  
"I don't think so," Rachel frowned at the ground, "I don't know."  
Hermione was looking at them as though they were mental.

Rachel suddenly jumped up as a strong breeze wound its way through the forest, "here we come!"  
"Lupin's transforming," Hermione whispered, as the three watched the group emerge and the moonlight hit the werewolf.  
"We've got to move!" Harry said suddenly, "Lupin's going to run into the forest, right at us!"  
"Hagrid's is empty by now, let's go!" Rachel announced, untying Buckbeak and the group raced back, the werewolf howling behind them.

The group remained breathless in the cabin for a moment before Harry announced he was going out to see the happenings.  
"Don't interfere!" Hermione warned him in reminder.  
"I'm going with you," Rachel declared, and the twins dashed out of the cabin, just as the dementors moved in.

"Do you really think that was Dad, that cast the Patronus?" Rachel murmured to Harry. He stopped and looked at her, "there's only one way to find out." And he took off for the Black Lake, his sister right on his heels.  
They threw themselves behind the bushes on the edges of the Lake, watching Harry attempt to produce a Patronus and fail.  
"There," Harry murmured, as they watched Rachel collapse to the ground, and green rays burst out around the group, "how do you do that?"  
"I dunno..." she began, frowning at the scene, "but Harry... I don't think Dad's coming..." the twins stared into each other's matching eyes as realization dawned.  
In a heartbeat, Harry had rushed forward, and shouted "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"  
Rachel watched as a huge silver stag burst from his wand and gallop towards the Lake, where it eagerly met the green rays bursting about. The green energy and the silver stag synergized, surrounding the helpless group on the banks and sending the dementors and their darkness fleeing from the scene.

Then the silver stag turned and cantered back towards where the twins watched in awe. Where its hooves touched the ground, the green energy sparked and flickered, swirling about the creature magnanimously.  
When the sight reached the bank just near the twins, the stag stopped, standing before them, and the green energy suddenly flowed down and out, dancing across the bank until it reached Rachel, who instinctively stretched out her hand to greet it. It disappeared upon reaching her fingertips, leaving her with a tingly feeling, just as her twin reached his hand towards the silver creature, and it disappeared.  
"Prongs," the twins murmured at the same time, staring at each other.

The remained standing, staring, until Hermione had dashed over with Buckbeak.  
"What have you two done!?"  
"Saved our lives," they replied immediately.

"Look at Snape-" Hermione interrupted their explanation. They turned to find that Snape, upon having regained consciousness, had begun conjuring stretchers to carry the group back towards the castle.  
"It's almost time," Rachel muttered.  
"We've got forty-five minutes to get back," Hermione checked her watch and informed the twins.

 

"Look! Macnair!" Rachel observed after a bit, "he's going to get the dementors! Let's go!"  
Harry helped Hermione and Rachel onto the hippogriff's back before hopping on himself, thanking the fact Buckbeak was large enough to carry more than three riders if needed.  
Buckbeak jumped into the air and soared towards the castle. Hermione screamed the entire time until Buckbeak steadied out his flying.

"Here!" Rachel shouted, and Harry directed Buckbeak to stop as they reached the window. Leaning over, Rachel busted open the window with a flick of her wand.   
"Oi, Padfoot, we're busting you out of this one," she announced almost humorously to the astonished Sirius, "let's go!"  
"How-how-" he stared, staring out the window at the hippogriff and the group of three.  
"Get on!" they urged him, and he quickly leapt out of the window and onto the hippogriff. Rachel flicked her wand and the window repaired itself, looking untampered with, and Harry quickly directed Buckbeak up to the top of the West Tower battlements.

"Sirius you have to go, quickly," Harry said as the three slid off the hippogriff, "they'll reach Flitwick's office at any moment..."  
"What happened to the other boy, Ron?"  
"He's going to be fine, now go!" Rachel urged him.  
"How can I ever thank-"  
"By leaving! Go!"  
Sirius turned Buckbeak to face the sky before looking back at the group, "we'll see each other again... your parents would be proud," and Buckbeak leapt off from the tower, raising his wings and took off into the free sky.


	20. XX

"We've got ten minutes!" Hermione gasped, "hurry, let's go!"   
The group turned on heel and bolted back to the hospital wing.

"One minute..." Hermione groaned, after the group had to quickly avoid the Minister of Magic and Snape, and then Peeves.  
They spotted Dumbledore backing out of the room as the raced down the corridor.  
"Well?" he inquired when they dashed forward.  
"We did it," Harry panted, "Sirius is gone, on Buckbeak."  
Dumbledore beamed, "well done," before listening for sounds in the hospital wing, "I think you've gone too. Inside now, I'll lock you in."   
The three slipping inside the wing, empty save for Ron's motionless figure. The lock clicked as the group crept to their beds, as Madam Pomfrey emerged, on a warpath to accomplish her goal of forcing as much chocolate down their throats as possible.  
The three quietly acquiesced, waiting tensely for what would inevitably occur.

Rachel let out an amused snort as a sudden roar of anger was heard from somewhere above them in the castle.  
"He must have Disapparated, Severus. We should have left somebody in the room with him. When this gets out-"  
"HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE. YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THE CASTLE. THIS-HAS-SOMETHING-TO-DO-WITH-POTTER!"  
"Be reasonable, Severus, they've all been locked up."  
The door to the wing burst open and in came an angry looking Fudge, an amused Dumbledore, and a livid Snape.  
"OUT WITH IT POTTER! WHAT DID YOU DO?"  
"Professor Snape! Control yourself!" Madam Pomfrey shrieked angrily.  
"See here, Snape, be reasonable, this door's been locked-" Fudge attempted to rationalize.  
"Quite frankly, Professor," Rachel began smoothly, eyes glittering, "I am astonished that my own head of house would think that I would have anything to do with helping a mass murderer escape-"   
"THE OTHER POTTER. HE HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT."  
"It's always that one," Rachel sighed and helped herself to more chocolate.  
"Calm down, man! You're talking nonsense!" Fudge said brusquely.  
"YOU DON'T KNOW THIS POTTER, HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT-"  
"That will do, Severus," Dumbledore interrupted calmly, "this door has been locked since I left the ward ten minutes ago. Madam Pomfrey, have these students left their beds?"  
"Of course not!" came the irritated answer.  
"Well, there you have it, Severus. Unless you are suggesting that it is possible for someone to be in two places at once, I don't see any point in troubling them further."  
Snape seethed in rage, staring between Fudge and Dumbledore before turning heel and stomping out of the wing.  
"Fellow seems quite unbalanced," Fudge said in astonishment, "I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore."  
"Oh, he's not unbalanced. He's just suffered a severe disappointment."  
"He's not the only one. The Prophet's going to be all over this. We had Black backed in a corner and he slipped through our fingers, again! And the hippogriff story," Fudge groaned, "I'll be the laughingstock of the country!"  
"And the dementors?" Dumbledore asked, "they'll be removed from the school, I trust?"  
"Oh, yes, they'll have to go. Completely out of control. I'll have them packed off to Azkaban tonight," Fudge announced dully, before he and Dumbledore departed the wing.

 

"What... happened? Why are we were? Where's Sirius? Where's Lupin? What's going on?" Ron had awoken at last and groaned from his bed. The group of three looked at each other.  
"Hermione can explain," Rachel announced, seizing two chocolate frogs and tossing one to her brother.

 

***************************

 

"You won't believe what Snape did," Rachel said, looking vaguely irritated as she sat down next to the Gryffindor trio where they reclined near the Black Lake, discussing with Hagrid the escape of Buckbeak last night.  
"Somehow I will," Harry responded.  
"He went and told all of Slytherin house that Lupin's a werewolf and was running loose on the grounds last night," she seethed at the petty hate that existed between that particular class of former Hogwarts' students.  
"He didn't!" Hermione gasped in horror.  
"Knew I'd believe it," Harry sighed in anger.  
"That's low, that is," Ron hissed, as Hagrid made a disgusted sound before covering it with a hasty cough.  
"I was worried this mornin' that Beaky woulda run into him last night... he's packin' now, o' course."  
"What? Why?" Harry asked worriedly.  
"Resigned firs' thing this mornin'," Hagrid began before Harry jumped up, "I'm going to see him."  
Rachel rose and followed on his heels.

 

"I saw you coming," Lupin greeted them as the twins entered his office, and he pointed down at the open Marauder's Map.  
"Hagrid said you resigned," Harry said, "is it true?"  
"I'm afraid it is," he responded, reaching down to empty a desk drawer.  
"Why? Does the Ministry think you were helping Sirius?"  
"No, Dumbledore convinced Fudge that I was trying to save your lives... although that was the last straw for Severus. The loss of the Order of Merlin Fudge was going to give him hit him hard..."  
"...and he accidentally let it slip this morning at breakfast to us." Rachel finished for him heavily.  
"But- but you can't just leave because of that!" Harry exclaimed.  
Lupin's smile was twisted, "no one wants a werewolf teaching their children, Harry."  
"You're the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've had!"  
Lupin smiled weakly, shaking his head before beginning, "from what I've heard from the headmaster, a lot of lives were saved last night.... but tell me about your Patronus?"  
"How do you know about that?"  
"What else would have driven the dementors back?"  
At this the twins looked at each other. Lupin saw the glance and stopped clearing his desk of contents.  
"Coupled with the most curious form of wandless magic I've ever seen, I suppose nothing would have been able to withstand that combination," he said slowly.  
"Yeah," Rachel said, "that's what happened."  
"My Patronus... it was a stag... is that- is that what Dad transformed into?" Harry asked Lupin eagerly.  
"Yes, that's why we called him Prongs," Lupin smiled quickly before handing over the Invisibility Cloak, "I brought this from the Shrieking Shack last night... and, I don't feel guilty about giving this back... I'm sure you all will find uses for it." He held out the Marauder's Map. "I have no hesitation is saying that James would have been highly disappointed if his children had never found any of the secret passages out of the castle."

A knock on the door introduced Professor Dumbledore, with the announcement that Lupin's carriage was waiting at the gates.  
Lupin farewelled the twins with a melancholy smile before gathering his belongings and departing quickly, leaving them with Dumbledore. Harry dropped into a chair miserably, with the explanation, "it didn't make any difference. Pettigrew got away."  
"It made all the difference in the world, Harry," Dumbledore smiled, "you helped uncover the truth. You saved an innocent man from a terrible fate."  
Harry jerked upright at this, "Professor- yesterday, Professor Trelawney, made a strange prophecy... she said Voldemort's servant was going to set out to him at midnight... and that the servant would help him come back to power... was she making a real prediction?" Harry asked Dumbledore as Rachel sucked in a breath in realization.  
"I think she might have been. That brings her total of real predictions up to two."  
The twins stared at him. Before Rachel could ask what the first real prediction had been, Harry queried, "but... we stopped Sirius and Lupin from killing Pettigrew... so it's our fault if Voldemort comes back!"  
"It is not," he responded softly, "the consequences of our actions are always so complicated... predicting the future is very difficult business indeed. It was a noble thing, saving Pettigrew's life. He owes his life to you two, and that is the last thing Voldemort wants in his servant. And I believe truthfully that your father would have saved Pettigrew, too. I am sure of it."  
The twins stared at Dumbledore before Harry blurted out, "I thought it was him who conjured the Patronus last night, when I saw myself, I thought I was seeing him."  
"An easy mistake, you do look remarkably like James, but you, both, indeed, have your mother's eyes."  
"Professor, the Patronus wasn't the only thing that repelled the dementors..." Harry looked at his sister who stared back at him, eyes unreadable, so Harry continued, "but... Rach... has done this a few times before, like in the Chamber of Secrets... a sort of wandless magic I think... it's this, er, weird sort of green energy..."  
"Indeed?" Dumbledore glanced at Rachel, looking highly intrigued.  
"I don't really know what it is... or how I do it," she admitted, "but it helped Harry's Patronus, the stag..."  
"Curious... Prongs was assisted last night then..."  
"Wait-" Harry began, "you know-"  
"Sirius told me last night all about how they became Animagi," Dumbledore smiled knowingly, "an extraordinary feat, keeping it quiet from me. In a way, you did see your father last night." With that he left the deserted office with a cryptic look on his face, leaving the twins to their confusion.

 

***************************

 

"It's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! You guys have got to come and stay with us and we can go! Dad got tickets from work!" Ron declared to Harry as the three Gryffindors settled into a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Rachel having been plucked from the trio by the Sidekicks.  
"Yeah... the Dursleys' would be pleased to let me leave... especially after what I did to Aunt Marge... I can always get Rach to convince them to let us go, if it's necessary, she can usually reason with them rationally..." Harry grinned at the thought, his sister was always able to slither her way into getting what she wanted from the Dursleys using their crude understanding of magic and the wizarding world, as well as appealing to them by means of flattery and psychological manipulation. Whereas he quickly lost his patience and his temper dealing with any of their Muggle relatives.  
"That would be awesome!" Ron said, "you and Mach will love the Quidditch World Cup, it's bloody amazing, the best event of the year, although sadly the English National team sadly doesn't stand a chance against the stacked teams from places like Ireland and France. And Bulgaria has got-"  
"What's all this Quidditch talk I hear?" Rachel appeared in the door of their compartment, black and silver Nyx purring in her arms, having excused herself from her Slytherin friends and searched for her brother.  
"The World Cup!" Ron exclaimed excitedly, "it's this summer! And Dad's got tickets, you and Harry have got to come!"  
"Oh yeah! I haven't heard Flint shut up about it! He's already in some massive and complicated bet as to who will be playing and who will win. Who do you-" Rachel stopped abruptly, squinting out the window to the compartment- "what is that?"  
"What?" the occupants turned to follow her gaze. A small, gray blob was bouncing up and down outside the window.  
Harry opened the window and caught the blob, pulling it into the compartment. It was a tiny owl with an enormous letter. Harry took the letter from the owl and it took flight again, zooming around the cabin before being snatched from the air by Ron, when Crookshanks' yellow eyes eyed it threateningly.

"It's from Sirius!" Harry announced excitedly. Rachel rushed to sit next to him to read along with him.

"You knew about the Firebolt?" Harry looked up at Rachel as he read the letter.  
She laughed, "yes, he gave it to me to give to you."  
"I told you it was from him!" Hermione announced triumphantly.  
"But he hadn't jinxed it, had he?" Ron argued.  
"He got the rings from the ruins after Voldemort killed Mum and Dad," Rachel reached a hand to her throat, where the invisible rings lay on their chain, concealed and undetected.  
"Kept them all the while in Azkaban," Harry murmured, staring at the words, before emptying the envelope and exclaiming with delight, "Hogsmeade passes!"  
Rachel laughed, "what'll Filch think, a mass murderer who's supposed to be trying to kill us, giving us permission to go to Hogsmeade? Scandalous!"  
"Beats the Dursleys' permission anyday," Harry snorted, before noticing the post script, "oi, Ron, he says you can keep the owl." Harry nodded at the hooting owl in Ron's hands.  
"Keep him?"  
"Seeing as he almost murdered your rat," Rachel grinned.  
"Well, let's make sure this is an actual owl this time," Ron held the tiny bird out to Crookshanks, "what do you reckon? Definitely an owl?"  
The orange cat purred his response.  
"That's good enough for me!"

 

"I'll call about the World Cup!" Ron shouted after the twins as they wheeled their trunks over to where Uncle Vernon stood, eyeing the Weasley family with distaste.  
"What's that?" he barked, looking at the envelope of the letter Harry still carried.  
"It's a letter-" Harry began.  
"-from our godfather," Rachel finished.  
"Godfather? Neither of you have a godfather!"  
"Yes, we do. He was mum and dad's best friend-"  
"-he's a convicted murderer, but he's broken out of wizard prison-"  
"-and he's on the run. He likes to keep in touch though-"  
"-keep up on the news-"  
"-check if we're happy-"  
"-the usual stuff."  
The twins grinned in delight at look of horror that appeared on their Uncle Vernon's face.


	21. XXI

"Harry! Wake up!" Harry, spellbound by a dream, awoke to his sister shaking him furiously. Her silver and black cat, Nyx, purring in his ear.  
"What?" he croaked, opening his eyes blearily.  
"Did you just have the same dream I just had?"  
At this he shot out of bed, the cat shot backwards with a hiss of annoyance.  
"With Wormtail-"  
"And Voldemort, and his snake, and there was a Muggle man too!" The twins' green eyes met as they mulled over the dream.  
"Do- do you think it was real?" Rachel asked him in a low voice, sitting at the end of his bed. Nyx crept onto her lap, meowing softly.  
"Dunno," Harry responded, running a hand through his jet-black hair, "but my scar's hurting, like it's been doing so recently."   
Rachel looked at him with worry etched across her face. She lacked the lightning bolt scar which graced her brother's forehead, just as she lacked the need for glasses.   
"Do you think it's a warning or something?" she asked him, pondering the meaning.  
"Of what?"  
"Voldemort returning," she said quickly, eyes suddenly widening, "remember that prophecy Trelawney made? That his servant would escape and join him and help him return? What if that's exactly what Wormtail did and plans to do?"  
Harry was silent, staring at the wall across his bedroom, before responding humorously despite the pain in his forehead, "it would be really inconvenient if Voldemort decided to return now. I mean, we haven't even taken OWLS yet."  
"It probably won't happen until the school year, that's when he's always up to his tricks," she responded lightly with a snicker.  
"But on a more serious note-" Harry stopped, grinning widely, "well, now this makes it sound not serious at all.... but do you think I should write to Sirius about it?"  
Rachel laughed quietly at the pun before replying, "yes. He'd want to know about your scar. But the dream... the dream is..."  
"...too weird?"  
"Yeah, that."  
"Alright, I'll do it now," Harry hopped out of bed and grabbed a piece of parchment from a spare pile on his desk, then dug a quill and ink out of his trunk. The Dursleys had been incredibly lenient towards the Potter twins this summer, once having found out their godfather was a convicted criminal. Both the twins found it extremely useful to use their murderous godfather as an excuse to do as they wished, and Sirius found the twin's manipulation of the Dursleys using him as a threat to be utterly hilarious. On more than one occasion, Rachel had faked tears, causing Harry to threaten to write to Sirius about it, which in turn petrified the Dursleys into placating the twins with whatever they wished.

 

*******************************

 

"I think, by Muggle standards at least, that that's enough stamps," Rachel declared firmly.  
Uncle Vernon was waving a letter from Mrs. Weasley under the noses of the twins, having just finished reading it aloud, the envelope was covered entirely in stamps, save for the address on the front.  
"The postman noticed," Uncle Vernon gritted his teeth furiously, "thought it was... funny."  
"But can we go?" Harry asked bluntly, "to the Quidditch World Cup?"  
"Who is this woman?" Uncle Vernon temporized quickly.  
"You've seen her, she's Ron's mother."  
"Load of children with red hair?"   
The twins nodded, Rachel rolling her eyes while Harry looked annoyed.  
"And what is this rubbish, Quidditch?" Uncle Vernon spat the word.  
Rachel inhaled sharply, about to make a snappish retort before Harry silenced her with his eyes. The one thing Rachel couldn't tolerate was the Dursleys insulting her favorite sport.  
"It's a sport, played on broom-" Harry was cut off by Vernon's fear of the word, "broomstick".  
"And what does she mean, respond in the normal way?"  
"Normal for us, owl post, that is. That's what wizards-"  
"Shh! How many times do I have to tell you not to mention that unnaturalness under my roof!?"  
"Alright, so you're not letting us go?" Rachel interrupted, "Harry, should we add that in our letter to our godfather, since he'd want to know if we weren't being allowed to go to the Quidditch World Cup-"  
Uncle Vernon's face turned violent purple, "you're- you're writing to him?" he stuttered, fear flashing in his eyes.  
"Yeah," Harry responded coolly, enjoying Uncle Vernon's discontent thoroughly.  
"It's actually been a while since we've written to him, now that I think of it, Harry," Rachel said casually.  
"You're right, Rach. He might be worrying-"  
"-thinking there's something wrong-"  
"-we're being mistreated-"  
"-he might even decide-"  
"Alright! You can go to this stupid... World Cup thing. And you can tell your godfather, tell him... tell him you're going."  
"Glad that's cleared up!" Rachel beamed before she and Harry retreated back upstairs.

 

*************************

 

 

"Mach! We hear you laughing!" came the insulted voices of Fred and George from the Dursleys' fireplace. The Weasleys had thought it a good idea to pick the twins up by flooing to the Muggle's house, unaware of the boarded up fireplace, which had caused them to become stuck in the chimney. Rachel, indeed, had to momentarily leave the room to control her laughter, while Uncle Vernon fumed and Aunt Petunia looked terrified.  
"Mr. Weasley... the fireplace is blocked up... it's an electric fire... you won't be able to get through," Rachel heard Harry call to the very confused Weasleys.  
"Eclectic, you say?" came Mr. Weasley's excited voice, ever the enthusiast for Muggle technology.  
There was a loud bang, and a crash, causing Aunt Petunia to shriek in horror. Rachel returned to the room to find Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ron stumbling out of the fireplace looking extremely dusty and annoyed.  
"Ello, Mach!" Fred and George squashed her into a bear hug.  
"Got your trunks ready?" Mr. Weasley questioned the twins after apologizing to the livid Dursleys.  
"They're upstairs," Harry responded.  
"Oh, we'll grab them for you," Fred volunteered himself and George, letting go of Rachel and darting off into the house.  
When they returned, Dudley had entered the room, and the Potter twins watched the Weasley twins break into identical mischievous grins upon spotting the Potter's notorious cousin.

"Alright, let's get cracking!" Mr. Weasley brought the fireplace roaring to life with a quick, "incendio!" before tossing a pinch of floo powder into the flames. "Fred, off you go."  
"Right," Fred said, before tripping over his own feet, "oh no!" and a bag chock full of various sweets spilled out of his pocket and scattered around the room. Rachel bit her lip in amusement as she watched him subtly miss a few candies as he stuffed them back into his pocket.   
She muffled a snicker when she watched Dudley curiously pick one up and unwrap it.

Rachel stepped into the fire after Fred, George, and Ron had disappeared into the flames. Shouting, "the Burrow!" she closed her eyes until she stopped spinning, stepping out of the fireplace to see a grinning Fred and George. Behind them, sat Ron, and the two eldest Weasley siblings, Bill and Charlie.  
"He had just eaten it when I left," she announced to their expecting faces, and they broke into laughter, just as Harry appeared in the fireplace behind her.  
"What was that?" a grin broke onto Harry's face.  
"Ton-Tongue Toffee," Fred grinned broadly, "George and I invented them. We've been looking for someone to test them on."  
Another gale of laughter shook the room until Mr. Weasley apparated into the room with a pop.  
"That wasn't funny Fred! What did you give him?"  
"I didn't give him anything, I just dropped it. It's his fault he ate it!"  
"You dropped it on purpose!"  
"How big did his tongue get?" George changed the topic and asked eagerly.  
"It was four feet long-"  
The room erupted into laughter once more as Mr. Weasley looked around at them in hopeless indignation.

 

***************************

 

"So what do you think, Mach?" George asked her. The Weasley twins had handed her a stack of parchment covered in scribbling and notes. Earlier in the summer they had shared their idea with her of creating a joke shop, and she had endorsed it eagerly, writing them suggestions to improve their attempts at creating Weasley's Wizard Wheezes potential products.

"Better than Percy's boring report?" Fred snickered quietly.  
Rachel laughed lowly in response. Percy Weasley, working in the Ministry of Magic under Barty Crouch, had talked the entire supper they had just had, about his upcoming report on creating an international standard for cauldron thickness. Rachel had questioned him repeatedly about the report, and he had been ecstatic that someone was showing interest in his work, practically dragging her to his room and showing her the dozen pages he had already written, all the while repeating how important it was to international safety in the wizarding world. She had read it over, pointed out several holes in his arguments, advised he smooth over his introduction, and had suggested several more edits overall.  
Percy was practically worshiping every word from her mouth, begging her for more advice; how should he frame the conclusion? Was his word choice appropriate here? What were the counter arguments? -before Fred and George had busted into the room and demanded they needed Rachel for a "matter of utmost importance."  
"His was certainly... easier to read," she squinted at a section on the parchment which had been crossed out, scribbled over, and scratched out multiple times, "these prices are bloody outrageous though."  
"We need to make money!"  
"You can't start out charging 20 Galleons for ten fake wands, that's two Galleons per one wand that explodes when waved! Start low, get people interested, give free samples even, then hike up the prices when the demand's high enough," she picked up a quill and began scratching out the inordinately high prices.  
"Wise words, Mach," Fred mused quietly. The three were the only ones awake in Ron's room. Harry and Ron were both asleep across the room. Fred and George were bunking there while Bill and Charlie took their own room. Percy retained his room to himself, due to his work on his cauldron report.  
"I'll invest in you guys, once you open," she told them seriously, before handing them back all their notes, "now, I've got to go ponder who will win the Cup. G'night," she told them, quietly slipping out of the room to where she was bunking with Ginny and Hermione.

 

****************************

 

"I hate portkeys," Rachel groaned, as she landed hard once the portkey had stopped spinning and dumped the group on the ground.  
"They're not so bad, once you're used to them," Cedric Diggory, who, with his father, had met up with the Weasley party to take the portkey to the cup held out a hand to help her up. She took it graciously, feeling nauseous as he pulled her up from the ground.

 

Within moments, the group had split with the Diggorys, and, once having gotten past the suspicious Muggle security guard, found the tents in the camp labelled "WEEZLY".  
Arthur Weasley, in strict adherence to doing everything like a Muggle would, insisted they set up the tents by hand, and later sent Ron, Harry, Rachel, and Hermione out to collect water from the tap on the other side of the field.

The group enjoyed walking through the camp, eyeing the multitude of strange witches and wizards who had gathered for the World Cup. They spotted many of the various Hogwarts students they were familiar with as well. Former Gryffindor Quidditch Captain Oliver Wood dragged both Potter twins aside to introduce them to his parents eagerly, while informing them he had signed with the Puddlemere United reserve team. Later, former Slytherin Quidditch Captain Marcus Flint pulled Rachel aside and introduced her to a group of his burly looking friends, declaring she would be signed to a professional Quidditch team the moment she graduated Hogwarts, so they'd best get her autograph now.

When the group reached the tap, Rachel excused herself from the trio to chat with Kerry Carbone, her fellow Slytherin and one of her best friends known as the Sidekicks. The two girls discussed their ideas for the outcomes of the match -("Krum's going to catch the Snitch, I swear it-"), and exchanged bets before Rachel made her way back to the Weasley's tent, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione had returned a while ago.  
She arrived at the same time Mr. Weasley was introducing everyone to Ludo Bagman, former Quidditch player for the English national team, now Head of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry.  
"-and I'm Rachel Potter," she added, after Mr. Weasley announced his childrens' and then her twin's name.  
"Ah yes!" Bagman chuckled, "a certain Marcus Flint just informed me I ought to get your autograph now, claims you'll be on the national team upon graduation!"   
She laughed in response, "I've been told I'm better than two national teams put together, but I'm betting Krum's better, and will catch the Snitch for Bulgaria."  
Bagman laughed delightedly, jingling his pockets, heavy with gold, in response, "say, that reminds me, anyone fancy a flutter on the match?"   
Fred and George jumped forward eagerly, "we'll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, and three Knuts, that Ireland wins, but Krum gets the Snitch. Oh, and we'll toss in a fake wand with it."  
Bagman laughed giddily at the fake wand Fred and George presented him, then said, "Ireland wins but Krum catches the Snitch? Not a chance! I'll give you excellent odds on that one... and five Galleons for the wand," Bagman wrote down the Weasley twins names, to Mr. Weasley's horror at his sons gambling.

 

********************************

 

"Wow, look at these!" Harry exclaimed, rushing over to a cart piled with complicated brass binocular looking objects. The day had progressed with excitement, and at dusk, Wizards pushed carts throughout the campground, piled high with team merchandise displaying national pride.  
Harry quickly bought four of the Omnioculars and passed them around to Rachel, Ron, and Hermione.  
"These are wicked!" Rachel declared, peering through them. They allowed her to read the insignia of an Irish supporter from hundreds of feet away.  
"What team are you even supporting, Mach?" Ron questioned her, nodding at her dancing shamrock hat and red Bulgarian scarf with a roaring lion.  
"I support the sport of Quidditch," she replied loftily to Ron, "you lover-of-Krum."  
Ron reddened as Hermione and Harry roared with laughter. Ron had, while buying merchandise supporting Ireland, also purchased a small figure of Bulgarian Seeker Viktor Krum, which paced around his hand and scowled at anything green.  
"Viktor Krum is a genius!" Ron argued, "a Quidditch genius!"  
The others only laughed at his infatuation.

 

"It's time!" Mr. Weasley announced to the group, as a booming gong sounded beyond the camp, and red and green lights flickered to life, illuminating the path leading to the stadium.


	22. XXII

"Did you say Dobby?" Rachel looked over to where her brother was staring at a small figure crouching in a seat near him in the top box of the Quidditch stadium.  
"It's not Dobby, it's Crouch's elf," her brother responded, a vaguely confused look on his face, "says she's saving him a seat."  
"Dodgy," Rachel murmured, before Cornelius Fudge appeared and was only too eager to introduce her and her twin to every important person who accompanied him.  
"...the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, of course, doesn't speak a word on English. I need Barty Crouch for this. Ah, I see his house-elf's saving him a seat..." Fudge was saying, "oh, and here's Lucius!"  
"Fudge!" Lucius Malfoy said, "I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?"  
"How do you do?" Fudge said, bowing to the Malfoy family, "and allow me to introduce Mr. Obalonsk, Bulgarian Minister of Magic... and you know Arthur Weasley?"  
Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley looked at each other coldly.   
"Good lord, Arthur," Lucius Malfoy said quietly, "what did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box?"  
Fudge, not having heard the remark, explained, "Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital, and is here as my guest."  
"How- how nice," Mr. Weasley smiled weakly.

"Hello, Draco," Rachel said when the Malfoys passed the Weasley group and continued towards their seats.  
Draco turned from giving Harry, Ron, and Hermione a venomous look to where Rachel sat behind them.  
"Mach!" his face lifted immediately. He turned to his parents, "Mother, Father, this is Mach, Mach, er, Potter."  
"Ah, yes," Lucius Malfoy said smoothly, extending a hand, "Draco has told us much about you."  
Rachel laughed, shaking his hand quickly, "has he, now?"  
Draco reddened suddenly, "she's the best Chaser Slytherin has seen in ages," he said hastily, as Narcissa greeted Rachel warmly.  
"You know," Draco muttered to Rachel as his parents took their seats, "you're probably as good as the Irish Chasers. Their lineup is superior this year."  
"You're such a flatterer," Rachel snorted, "has Flint told you to get my autograph too?"  
"You already signed my broom," he reminded her, "remember when you thought it would be good luck in catching the Snitch?"  
"Oh yeah!" she laughed, "it wasn't!" before she was drowned out by the sudden enhancement of Ludo Bagman's voice, announcing the introduction of the team mascots. 

 

"How can you even talk to him?" Ron said in disgust, when Rachel turned back to the group, "they're all slimy gits."  
"To Gryffindors, yes," she responded, as the Bulgarian mascots, veelas, danced onto the field, immediately distracting every male in the arena.  
Hermione, Ginny, and Rachel shared a look of amusement between themselves, before pulling the boys around them back into reality. The veela's spell quickly wore off with the Irish leprechauns arriving onto the field, dropping gold coins around the stadium.

 

**********************************

 

"Mach, you fly just like the Irish Chasers!" Fred yelled over to Rachel once the game had begun, and it was indeed clear, that the Irish lineup was vastly superior. Their highly-coordinated Chasers passed the Quaffle between them so fast it was almost impossible to keep up with who had it, as Bagman could only shout the first syllable of their names before the Quaffle was tossed to another.  
"Seven seconds?" she yelled back in amusement.  
"That's only because you hog the Quaffle!"  
"I can't help it!"

 

***********************************

 

"Going to try that feint, Harry?" Ron yelled over to his best friend, after Viktor Krum had, pretending to spot the Snitch, dashed to the ground, with the Irish Seeker, Lynch following him closely. Krum pulled up just before hitting the ground, but Lynch had not, and had consequentially smashed into the ground, and was being attended to by mediwizards at the moment.  
"Maybe!" Harry shouted back, "but it seems a bit dirty-"  
"Do it against Slytherin!"  
"Hey!"  
"You're not Seeker, Mach, it won't effect you!"

 

*************************************

 

"They're going to crash!" Hermione screamed, as the two Seekers once more went into a steep dive.  
"They're not!" Ron bellowed back.  
"Lynch is!" Harry shouted, just as the Irish Seeker hit the ground in the midst of the fight that had occurred between the two opposing national mascots due to the intensity of the match.  
"Where's the Snitch?!" the whole stadium seemed to scream at the same time.  
"Krum's got it!" and indeed, Viktor Krum, bloodied from a Bludger to the face, clutched the small golden ball in his fist, albeit, not triumphantly, as the scoreboard flashed the score, proclaiming Ireland's victory by ten points; and Fred and George Weasley dashed over to Ludo Bagman to receive their winnings.

 

************************************

 

The group did not retire until late, excitedly discussing the events of the match that day. When Ginny's head dropped onto the table, spilling her mug of hot chocolate everywhere, Mr. Weasley ordered everyone off to bed. Rachel and Hermione supported an exhausted Ginny to their tent, separate from the boys, and the girls soon retired.

Rachel had only just fallen asleep when she was awakened by her cat, clawing her face anxiously.  
"What, Nyx?" she muttered quietly, sitting up. The cat meowed, gripping Rachel's sleeve with her teeth and attempting to tug her off the bed. Accustomed to her cat's unusual behavior, Rachel grabbed her wand and her green cloak quickly, and followed the anxious cat outside of the tent.  
To Rachel's astonishment, Draco Malfoy stood a few feet from the tent, his face lined with stress.  
"Mach!" he said, as if relieved she appeared alone.  
"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked him in confusion.  
Draco didn't respond for a moment.  
"Couldn't sleep," he said shortly, beginning to pace, before stopping a few feet past the tent and looked at her, "walk with me."  
She hesitated, glancing back at the two dark, silent tents, before falling into step beside him, "what's going on?" she demanded.  
"Nothing."  
"You just decided to show up outside my tent at... what... after three in the morning?"  
"That makes it sound... decidedly more sinister than it is."  
"It's creepy, that's what it is."  
Draco was silent, before he quickened his pace and changed direction, heading towards the forest. Rachel had to hurry to keep up with him, her green cloak swirled out behind her, moonlight reflected off it's silver snake crest.  
"Are we going somewhere?"  
"The forest," came the laconic response.  
"Why? Draco, what's going on? This doesn't make any sense-"  
"Why are you friends with Granger?"   
"What?" Rachel looked at him sharply.  
"Why are you friends with Granger?" he repeated softly but firmly.  
"What's that got to do with anything?"  
"Just answer."  
Rachel glared at him, "well, she's friends with Harry. And we've got a lot in common, I suppose-"  
"No you don't. She's a Mudblood."  
"Why-"  
"I thought you had Slytherin common sense."  
"I do," Rachel snarled, as they reached the shadows of the forest, "but Slytherin common sense isn't blood hate."  
Before Draco could respond, screams erupted from the camp. Rachel turned to view the grounds through a gap between the trees. It seemed as though a rowdy group of masked individuals had formed, shouting and laughing, wands pointed up, to where four figures were being controlled by the group as though they were puppets.

"What's your opinion on that?" Draco murmured, leaning against a tree, eyes watching the scene, "what do you think about them having a bit of fun with Muggles."  
She turned to him with cold green eyes, "it was planned, obviously. And it's a well-thought out plan. It will incite the most fear in the largest audience... excellent location for a demonstration too... the timing is well-chosen, everyone is at their least suspecting... though most likely, it will be washed aside in a few weeks, given the excuse of rowdy celebration and drunkenness after the Cup. If it doesn't get worse, that is."  
Draco laughed softly, eyeing her in amusement, "is that your idea of Slytherin common sense? Objective observation?"  
"Objective, true observation," she replied frigidly.  
"Fair enough."  
"You knew this would happen?"  
Draco didn't respond, eyes still watching the growing crowd hover the Muggles across the campgrounds, smashing and destroying everything in their path. The screams and roar increased, as people fled desperately from the surging group in black hoods.  
Rachel watched the situation intensify, "I need to find Harry, and the Weasleys." She made a move to leave, but Draco stepped forward.  
"No," his voice harsh, "stay here."  
"Why," she demanded.  
He pointed at the scene, "you really want to run into that? They're destroying everything in their way."  
"My brother is somewhere in there-"  
"I'm sure the only trouble that will befall Potter will be the trouble he gets himself into." Draco leaned against the tree nearest him, folding his arms, and watching the situation before them. Around them, fleeing people screamed, cried, and shouted to each other, attempting to find separated family and friends.  
Rachel stared at Draco, who seemed to be taking the whole thing very calmly.  
"You knew this would happen." It wasn't a question this time.  
His eyes flickered towards her, before returning to the gap in the trees that allowed a viewing of the happenings. Before he could respond, a loud yell was heard, right before them, and someone shouted a spell, "lumos!" The light revealed to all, Ron Weasley, on the ground, having tripped over a root. Hermione and Harry stood over him.  
"With feet that size, it's hard not to trip," Draco drawled loudly. The Gryffindor trio turned to spot Draco and Rachel, between the trees just in front of them.  
"Rach?! What're you doing here? We've been searching everywhere-"  
"What're you doing with him?" Ron cut Harry off, glaring at Draco in disgust. He then let out a lengthy string of expletives at him.  
"Language, Weasley," Draco hissed, "but hadn't you be hurrying along now? You wouldn't like her to be spotted, would you?" he nodded at Hermione.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione demanded harshly.  
"They're after Muggles, Granger."  
"Hermione's a witch!" Harry snapped.  
"Have it your way, Potter," Draco grinned, "if you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."  
"You watch your mouth!" Ron yelled at Draco immediately.  
"Nevermind, Ron," Hermione seized Ron's arm as he stepped forward.  
"I suppose your daddy told you all to hide?" Draco taunted, as Rachel whacked him across the shoulder in warning. He ignored her.  
"Where're your parents?" Harry barked, "out there wearing masks, are they?"  
"If they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?"  
"Oh come on," Hermione said in disgust, "let's go find the others."  
"Rach, come on!" Harry urged, looking back at her.  
"Oh, your precious sister is perfectly safe here with me, Potter. Slytherin house looks after its own, mind you that," Draco prattled, possessively placing an arm around Rachel's shoulders.  
"I'll catch up with you soon," she told them, watching them stumble through the forest, before she turned to Draco angrily, "why do you hate them so much?"   
"They're Gryffindor muggle lovers and blood traitors," he responded automatically, eyes turning back to where the terrorizing group had now increased dramatically in size.  
"What does that make me?"  
"You're a Slytherin, Mach."  
"What- a Slytherin blood traitor?"  
"That's your own words."  
"You implied it-"  
"No, I didn't-"  
"You just called my brother and friends Muggle lovers and blood-"  
"But I didn't call you that."  
"But that's what I am."  
"I never said that."  
"You're intolerable, sometimes, you know that, right?" she threw his arm off her and took a step away from him. She almost regretted her words and actions when a flash of hurt flickered through his eyes for a moment.  
A loud bang echoed across the woods, eliciting fresh screams from those fleeing around them.   
"I'd better go find the others now," she declared, turning away from Draco. He made a move as if to stop her but then stepped back, "alright."  
"Nyx, find Harry," Rachel murmured to her cat, who was lounging on a low lying branch of a nearby tree. At her words, the small cat jumped down, stood at high alert, before dashing off into the forest, Rachel following closely.

She almost tripped over Nyx when the cat came to a sudden halt at the edge of a clearing.   
"Wha-"  
She was cut off by a loud voice- "MORSMORDRE!"  
In an instant, a huge, green skull erupted in the night sky, a glittering snake seething out of its jaw. Rachel peered forward and caught a glimpse of a dark figure, pointing a wand at the sky, before screaming erupted all over the forest at an intensity not reached before.

She gazed up at the skull, mesmerized by its deathly glare, until Nyx tugged her along. She looked away from the sky, and dashed after her cat across the field.   
"Rachel?!" came a shout from across the clearing. In the green light of the glaring skull, she recognized the Gryffindor trio, racing towards her. When she reached them, Harry shouted, "GET DOWN!" and the group hit the ground hard, just as over a dozen voices yelled, "STUPEFY" and the spells bounced over their heads with flashes of red light.  
"STOP!" a voice shouted suddenly.  
"Rachel, is that you? Thank Merlin! And Ron- Harry- Hermione- are you all right?" Arthur Weasley was running towards them, looking worried.  
"Out of the way, Arthur," Barty Crouch snapped in a cold voice, "which of you did it? Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"  
The group huddling on the ground stared at him in shock.  
"We didn't do anything!" Ron said indignantly, "what did you go and attack us for?"  
"Do not lie!" Crouch shouted, staring down at them, "you all have been discovered at the scene of a crime!"  
"Barty- they're only kids," a witch from the group surrounding them said.  
"Where did the Mark come from?" Arthur Weasley questioned the group uneasily.  
"Over there-" Hermione pointed, "they shouted- an incantation."  
"Oh? Over there?" Crouch stared at her in suspicion, "you seem very well informed-"  
"We're too late," the witch said, as the group aimed their wands at the spot Hermione had pointed out.  
"Our stunners went right through the trees," Amos Diggory, one of the group, said, "we may have gotten someone."  
He cautiously made his way over to the area under the Mark, and returned in astonishment, carrying a small figure.  
"Barty Crouch's house elf-"  
"-and she had a wand-"  
"What?"  
"Look!" Amos Diggory held up a wand, before reviving Winky the house elf.

"I-I- I is not doing it," she squeaked, shaking in terror upon questioning, "I is not knowing how!"  
"You were found with a wand in your hand!" Diggory held out the wand.  
"Hey!" Harry said in astonishment, "that's mine!"  
"What!?" Rachel stared at her brother.  
"Excuse me?" Diggory stared as well.  
"I dropped it!"  
"You dropped it?" Diggory stared at him in suspicion, "is this a confession? Did you throw it down after casting the spell?"  
"Amos... think of who you're talking to," Arthur Weasley reasoned, "is Harry Potter likely to conjure the Dark Mark?"  
"Oh," Diggory looked embarrassed, "of course not. Sorry, got a bit carried away." He then turned back to a trembling Winky, "so, elf, you picked up this wand and thought you'd had some fun with it?"  
"I, I is not doing magic!" tears poured down the elf's face.  
"It wasn't her!" Rachel announced, looking around at the Ministry wizards, "I saw a figure, and it was definitely not a house elf."  
"She's right," Hermione said nervously, "we heard the voice, and it wasn't anything like Winky's squeaky little voice. It was a deeper, human voice."  
"We'll see about that," Diggory snapped, pointing his own wand at the wand in question, "Prior Incantato!"  
A gray ghost of the skull and snake roaring above them appeared above the wand.  
"So!" Diggory declared, "you've been caught red-handed, elf!"  
"It wasn't her!" Rachel began defiantly.  
"Is Amos suggesting," Crouch interrupted ruthlessly, "that I teach my own house elves how to conjure the Dark Mark?"  
Amos Diggory looked mortified, "no, no, of course not, Mr. Crouch!"  
"You have come close to accusing the handful of people in this clearing who are the least likely to conjure the Mark, Amos," Crouch seethed, "the Potters, and myself. I trust you remember the many proofs I have given, that I despise the Dark Arts and those who practice them?"  
"Of course, Mr. Crouch, I never suggested-"  
"If you accuse my elf, you accuse me, Diggory! Where else would she have learned to conjure it?"  
"She might have picked it up anywhere..."   
"Precisely!" Arthur Weasley jumped in, before turning to Winky, "where did you find Harry's wand?"  
"I is finding it... there, sir. In the trees..."  
"See, Amos, whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they said the spell, leaving behind the wand they'd used. A clever thing to do. Winky simply had the misfortune to come across the wand at the wrong time." Arthur Weasley explained calmly.  
"Or," Rachel jumped in eagerly, "whoever conjured it was with Winky at the time, and, after shouting the spell, deliberately framed Winky by leaving her with the wand-"  
"Let's not jump to conclusions now," Amos Diggory cut her off, looking nervous at the expression on Barty Crouch's face, "but the elf must have been a few feet from the culprit..."  
"I see no one, sir!" Winky sobbed.  
"Amos, I ask you and your department to allow me to deal with my own elf and distribute punishment as I see fit," Crouch said coldly, "rest assured, she will be punished." A silence followed the announcement, broken only by Winky's sobbing, "M-master!"  
"I've no use for a house elf who disobeys me," Crouch continued shortly, "this means clothes."  
"No!" Winky threw herself at his feet.  
"But-" Rachel silenced Hermione with a look.  
"Well..." Arthur Weasley broke the quiet that had descended, "I'll take my lot back to the tent... if Harry could have his wand back, please, Amos."  
Amos Diggory handed Harry the wand, and he took it quickly, as Rachel threatened she ought to sew it into his pocket so it wouldn't fall out next time.  
"Come on, you four," Mr. Weasley ushered them out of the clearing and back towards the campground, where by now the terrorizing group had disbanded and Ministry wizards were clearing the scene of debris and repairing tents.

"What were you doing with Malfoy?" Harry questioned his sister as they traversed the campground. Hermione and Ron looked at Rachel as well.  
"Nothing," she responded, "just talking. He was being bloody weird about the whole situation-"  
"Probably because his parents were under the masks too!" Ron pounced.  
"When we woke up- and you weren't in the tent..." Hermione paused, "we all panicked, we didn't know where you'd gone. But then we all got separated, trying to get away, and everyone was confused-"  
"I was fine," she assured them.  
"But Malfoy-"  
"Look," she interrupted, "I'm here now, I'm back, and I'm fine. No one got hurt, or killed, or anything. What I want to know is, who conjured the Mark?" she asked as the group returned to the tents and entered to find Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, and Ginny all looking extremely worried.  
"Why was there such a big deal about it?" Ron asked, "it's just a symbol. And everyone bloody freaked."  
"It's You-Know-Who's symbol, Ron," Hermione said quietly.  
"And it hasn't been seen in thirteen years," Mr. Weasley added softly, "it was almost like seeing You-Know-Who back again."  
"And only Death Eaters know how to conjure it," Charlie continued.  
"What're Death Eaters?" Harry asked in confusion.  
"Voldemort's supporters," Rachel replied immediately, and the whole room flinched at the name.  
"But- what was the point? Of levitating the Muggles and all-"  
"Do you even think?" Rachel sighed, "look where we are, it's the perfect place for a mass demonstration in front of the biggest audience, when they're least expecting it."  
"That's their idea of fun," Mr. Weasley said grimly.  
"But then-" Ron began slowly, "why did they all Disapparate when they saw the Mark?"  
"Neither of you think, my God," Rachel groaned, before Bill explained, "those Death Eaters tonight were the ones who managed to lie their way out of going to Azkaban, meaning they denied their involvement with You-Know-Who once he lost his powers."  
"The sneaky lot who pick their sides based on who's winning," Rachel elaborated, "Voldemort wouldn't be too pleased with them for that, now, would he?"


	23. XXIII

"WHAT!?" Rachel Potter yelled furiously, standing up at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, where Dumbledore had just announced that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup would not be taking place at Hogwarts this year. Throughout the hall, similar exclamations of protest and astonishment were erupting like wildfire.  
"I OBJECT!"  
"My sincerest apologies, Miss Potter," Dumbledore smiled from up on the dais, "but this is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy- but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely- ("I'm sure I won't," Rachel seethed, as the Sidekicks pulled her back down to sit)- "I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"  
With perfect timing, thunder clapped through the hall deafeningly, as the doors banged open, revealing a man with long gray hair, leaning on a staff. As he limped towards the high table, the students observed his ghastly face, with a disturbing, vivid blue eye, contrasting sharply with his other smaller, dark one, the scars slashing across his face, and the missing chunk of his nose.  
"New Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Kerry murmured, "wanna bet?"  
The man reached Dumbledore, shook hands, and exchanged a word, before taking a seat at the high table.  
"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher-"  
"Knew it."  
"-Professor Moody."   
The entire hall stared at the stranger for a moment before Dumbledore continued.  
"Now, as I was saying, we have the honor this year of hosting an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."  
Rachel had just taken a mouthful of pumpkin juice at the Slytherin table, and in response, spat it out in shock, while the entire hall's jaws dropped and discussion broke out.  
"YOU'RE JOKING!" came Fred Weasley's voice from the Gryffindor table.  
"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said calmly, "The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities -until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."  
Rachel snorted, "why is that always the reason?"  
"-however, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger... The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."  
"I've a cousin that went to Durmstrang," Sadie said at the Slytherin table, "he was a pretentious git."  
"Eager though I know all of you will be eager to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," Dumbledore continued, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion."   
Sounds of outrage and protest erupted from around the hall at this.  
"I bet you the Weasley twins will try to enter," Abigail snickered, nodding over to the Gryffindor table where Fred and George looked furious at this restriction.  
"Oh, I can't wait," Rachel laughed at the thought.

 

****************************

"Miss Potter, you cannot compare every goblin rebellion in the eighteenth century to the possible rebellions that may happen at Hogwarts over the Quidditch season being cancelled this year." Professor Binns informed her as he passed back their most recent essay. The class around her erupted into laughter.  
"But Professor!" she said in horror, "the history of the sport of Quidditch is no less important than the history of goblin rebellions in the wizarding world! To discontinue such a noble sport is equivalent to the 1753 discontinuation of goblin-"  
"That will be quite enough on the subject, Miss Potter," Binns droned while the class snickered all around him, "please keep your essays relevant to historical topics."

 

******************************

 

"What do y'think Moody's class will be like today?" Ron questioned as he, Harry, and Rachel made their way through the hallways to their Defense Against the Dark Arts class.  
"Something wild, no doubt," Rachel replied. Moody's classes were quickly gaining fame for being not only informative but also eccentric, as befitting of its teacher.

 

"The Imperius Curse?" Hermione squeaked as Moody announced he would be putting each of them under its influence for their class today, "but you said it's illegal!"  
"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," Moody growled, staring at Hermione with his swiveling eye, "if you'd rather learn the hard way, when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely, fine by me. You're excused."  
Hermione remained where she was, albeit very pink.

Rachel watched anxiously as one by one, Moody called the students forward and placed them under the influence of the curse. 

"Potter," Moody growled, "either of you." Harry glanced at his sister before stepping forward.  
Rachel watched as Moody placed the spell upon her brother, and his eyes went fuzzy, blurring out of focus, a strangely calm look coming over his face. She watched him suddenly bend his knees, as though to jump.  
No, Harry, don't do it. Rachel couldn't help but think as she looked at his unfocused eyes. She thought she caught a glimpse of hesitation in them, his forehead crinkling in confusion. She watched him stumble and crash into a desk headlong, eyes very confused.  
"That's more like it!" Moody shouted, lifting the curse, "look at that, you lot. Potter fought it, and damn near beat it!"  
Moody then turned his fixed gaze on Rachel, as Harry rubbed his knees painfully, "dare I try it on the other?"  
"Do your worst," she declared, stepping forward defiantly.  
"Imperio!" and her vision suddenly blurred, a light feeling overcame her, as though she were flying, with not a care in the world.  
She then became aware of a small voice in the back of her head, sounding vaguely like Moody's.  
"-jump onto the desk-"  
And then, from elsewhere in her mind, a voice sounding oddly like Harry's, "no Rach, don't."  
She froze up, mentally assessing the voice of Moody clamoring in her head, urging, persuading, exhorting. Building walls and raising ramparts, she zeroed in on the voice, before declaring war, not backing away, but throwing herself at the small voice with everything she had.  
When her vision finally cleared, she found herself sitting on the floor, leaning against a desk, the entire class staring at her. Professor Moody was looking, for once, wordless, as he stared down at her in blank astonishment.  
"What happened?" her voice cracked as she questioned the silent room.  
"What happened," Moody repeated, "is what I want to know too." He turned to the class, "Miss Potter here has just managed not only to shake off the Imperious Curse, but drive the Curse and its perpetrator out of her mind using nothing but sheer willpower. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked at the class, causing them to jump.  
"Rach," Harry whispered to her as he helped her off the ground, "your eyes went that funny green color again."  
"Oh," she responded laconically, taking his hand and getting to her feet, "did they?"

 

***************************

 

"You're an idiot, that's why," Rachel told Harry as she sat at the Gryffindor table the morning the other magical schools were supposed to arrive, "he wouldn't believe your trash excuse for imagining your scar hurt anyways. And I wrote to him myself and told him you overreacted to him coming back north."  
"What? Why?" Harry demanded furiously. The letter he had wrote to Sirius about his scar hurting was returned with Sirius's announcement of his return north, which, naturally, Harry felt could only mean nothing good, thus he wrote immediately back, telling Sirius he must have imagined his scar hurting so he ought not to bother coming back north.  
"Because that's what you did- overreact," she snorted, helping herself to toast and marmalade.  
"If he gets caught-"  
"He's not going to."  
"You don't know that!"  
"You overreacting and doing something stupid will more likely contribute to him getting caught than him coming back north."

 

****************************

 

"Ah! Mach!" Draco beckoned her over to where he was sitting at the Slytherin table with a gaggle of Durmstrang students for the Halloween feast, when the names of the champions would be announced, "have you met Viktor Krum yet?"  
He pulled her into the seat next to him and gestured across the table, where the Bulgarian Seeker was slouching.  
"Viktor, this is Mach," Draco announced.  
"Mach?" Krum repeated in a confused and heavily accented voice.  
"Mach Potter," Draco said, smirking, as realization flickered in Krum's eyes.  
"Pleased to meet you," he drawled thickly, extending a hand. Rachel shook it warmly.  
"Mach here also happens to be the best Chaser Slytherin house has seen in centuries," Draco voice carried a hint of a gloat.  
Krum perked up at the mention of Quidditch and looked at Rachel in interest.  
"You play Quidditch?" he asked in his thick accent, "but you are a girl-"  
"So?" she answered sharply.  
Krum stared at her before shaking his head in silent response.  
"Have you brought your broom with you, Krum?" Rachel demanded in a tone that caused all sitting around them to quiet and listen in.  
"Yes, ov course," he answered, "I alvays bring-"  
"Good," she declared, standing up to leave, "let me know when you're interested in how we play Quidditch here at Hogwarts."  
She strolled away from the group and settled herself in between Kerry and Sadie.  
"What did you just do?"  
"Told Viktor Krum I would teach him how to play Quidditch, Hogwarts-style."  
Abigail, across the table, almost choked on treacle tart, "you what?!"  
"Shh!" Rachel hissed at her, "they're announcing the champions!"

Collectively, all eyes turned to the high table, where the shimmering Goblet of Fire stood, flames flickering wildly. Dumbledore approached it cautiously. A charred piece of paper shot out from the flames. Dumbledore reached forward and snatched it, taking a look at it before announcing, "the champion for Durmstrang, will be Viktor Krum!"  
Applause and cheers swept the hall as the Sidekicks turned to look at Rachel with another look of disdain. She had challenged not only the Bulgarian national team's Seeker, but now a Triwizard champion. 

"The champion for Beauxbatons," Dumbledore announced when another scrap of parchment flew out, "will be Fleur Delacour."  
Kerry let out a loud snort of amusement in reaction when the other Beauxbaton students dissolved into tears at not being selected.  
"Did I tell you I had another cousin at Beauxbatons too," Sadie laughed, "she was absolutely intolerable."  
"Hogwarts champion next!" Abigail announced in excitement, as a final piece of parchment shot out from the goblet.  
"The Hogwarts' champion... is Cedric Diggory!"  
Hufflepuff table roared to their feet, cheering on their champion as he made his way to the door behind the high table to join the others.  
"Well, we now have our three champions, "Dumbledore announced to the crowd, "I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real -"  
A gasp riffled through the hall as the Goblet's flames turned colors once more, and another, fourth, piece of parchment shot up.  
Dumbledore, although as astonished as everyone else, reached forward and grabbed the parchment from the air. He stared at it for what seemed eternities before reading it to the crowd, "Harry Potter."

Rachel slipped off the bench in shock as the entire hall turned to look at Harry at the Gryffindor table.  
"What... how?" Kerry asked, looking down to the stone floor where Rachel was sprawled in shock.  
"Dunno..." she said, slowly climbing to her feet, mind numb. There was no way her brother could have put his name in the Goblet... she would have known. And Fred and George had grown foot long beards after their attempt at aging potions. It didn't make sense...  
"Harry! Up here if you please!" Dumbledore called once more. Rachel watched her brother shakily stand up and walk towards the table, looking as flabbergasted as she felt. The entire hall was staring at him.

He disappeared through the door the others had gone, and immediately, the entire hall broke into a buzz. Several people were looking at Rachel, ready to interrogate.  
"Is your name going to shoot out too?"  
"Did you know?"  
"How did he do it?"  
"Did you help him?"  
"Shut up!" she snapped at the hostile faces, "no, no, I don't know, and no!" she stood up, watching Dumbledore, McGonagall, Karkaroff, Maxime, Snape, Crouch, and Bagman hurry through the door the champions had gone through. Without thinking, Rachel dashed away from the Slytherin table and hurried down the hall and through the door after them.

 

She heard loud voices clamoring from the chamber as she raced down the short passage.  
"Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?"  
"No!"  
"Ah, but of course 'e is lying!"  
"He could not have crossed the age line!"  
"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line!"  
"It is possible..."  
"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake! Really, what nonsense!"  
She burst into the room, out of breath, looking around at the angry looking figures.  
"Miss Potter," Snape drawled, looking at her sharply, "don't tell us your name has just shot out of the Goblet as well."  
Madame Maxime and Karkaroff made sounds of outrage at this suggestion.  
"No," Rachel replied immediately, "whoever put Harry's name in the Goblet would make it far too obvious if he put both our names in, now, wouldn't it."  
"So you know who put ze name in!" Madame Maxime pointed an accusing finger at her.  
"No," Rachel said coldly.

"Dumbledore this is getting out of hand!" Karkaroff snapped furiously, "Mr. Crouch, Mr. Bagman... surely you see that this is most irregular?"  
"We must follow the rules," Crouch replied immediately, "they clearly state that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."  
"Then I insist upon resubmitting the names of the rest of my students-"  
"It doesn't work like that, Karkaroff," Bagman explained, "the Goblet's just gone out, and it won't reignite until the start of the next tournament."  
"In which Durmstrang will certainly not be competing!" Karkaroff seethed, "I've half a mind to leave now!"  
"Empty threat, Karkaroff," a heavy clunking signified Moody's arrival, "it's a binding magical contract- you can't leave. Convenient, eh?"  
"Convenient?"  
"Someone put Potter's name in that goblet knowing he'd have to compete if it came out."  
"Thank you!" Rachel exploded, glaring furiously at all heads of schools, "you can't expect a fourteen year old to compete against others with considerably more magical training and experience than he has-"  
"Funny thing, Miss Potter," Moody's blue eye focused on her, "if anyone's got reason to complain it's your brother. I don't hear him saying a word."  
"Why should 'e complain!" Fleur Delacour snapped, "e 'as ze chance to compete! Ze honor for your schools! A thousand Galleons! Zis is a chance many would die for!"  
"Maybe someone's hoping Potter is going to die for it," Moody growled, and the room fell silent.  
Rachel's eyes widened at the suggestion, as she stared, unseeing, at the wall of the room, gears oiled for turning.

"Look now, we all know Professor Moody considers the morning wasted if he hasn't discovered six plots to murder him before lunchtime," Karkaroff declared sharply.  
"Imagining things, am I?" Moody seethed, "it was a skilled witch or wizard who put the boy's name in that goblet... it would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle the goblet into thinking there was a fourth school."  
Rachel stared at him in intrigue before Karkaroff jumped, "you seem to have given this a great deal of thought, Moody!"  
"It's my job to think the way Dark wizards do, Karkaroff- as you ought to remember-"  
"Alastor!" Dumbledore warned suddenly, before continuing calmly, "it seems to me, that we have no choice but to accept this situation. Therefore, both Cedric and Harry will compete in the tournament."  
Rachel opened her mouth to protest before Harry silenced her with a sharp look.

"Well," Bagman began with excitement, "we've got to give our champions their instructions! Barty?"  
Mr. Crouch stepped forward solemnly, the four champions gathered around him, "the first task is designed to test your daring. So, we are not going to tell you what it is."  
At this Rachel snorted loudly enough to cause all teachers in the room to give her a look.  
"-the first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the others students and the panel of judges. Champions are not permitted help of any kind from any teachers to complete the tasks, and will be armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task upon completion of the first."

Crouch soon finished and the group slowly began to disperse. Harry and Cedric followed an infuriated Rachel out of the room and into the corridor. The group did not say a word, the two boys both frightened of the anger emanating from the Slytherin.

"I'm still mad they cancelled Quidditch because of this," she informed them icily before leaving them and heading down to the dungeons to the Slytherin common room.


	24. XXIV

"IF ONE MORE PERSON ASKS MACH HOW POTTER PUT HIS NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE, I WILL PERSONALLY ENSURE THEY WILL BE IN THE HOSPITAL WING UNTIL THE TOURNAMENT ENDS."  
It was the morning after the champions had been announced, and when Rachel Potter had entered the Great Hall with the Sidekicks, she had been flocked with people from all houses, interrogating her as to how her brother had done it. Sensing her friend's obvious frustration and anger at this, Kerry had taken it upon herself to tell the entire school off, jumping up on the Slytherin table and yelling loud enough for the entire hall to hear.

"Shh, Kerry, stop!" Rachel groaned. She was only attracting more unwanted attention.  
"MAYBE SHE DID IT FOR HIM!" someone from the Hufflepuff crowd yelled back. Hufflepuff took it as a personally offense that Harry had already stolen all the glory from their own champion.   
A murmur of suspicion swept the hall at this suggestion.  
"DID SHE FLY HER FIREBOLT OVER THE AGE LINE?" another shout from another part of the hall.  
"WHO SAID THAT!?" Kerry roared, drawing her wand in fury.  
"SO IT'S TRUE!" The speaker was Hufflepuff fourth year Ernie Macmillan.  
Remaining sitting at the Slytherin table, Rachel calmly drew her wand. With a neat little spell, a flock of furious birds appeared, whirling off into the crowd, aim locked on the target. Rachel was pouring herself a glass of juice when the screaming began.  
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Ernie shouted as hurried through the crowd towards Rachel, frantically trying to take down the birds with poorly aimed spells.  
When the crowd parted to let him through to face her, she flicked her wand and the birds disappeared.  
"Are you done spreading more false rumors about my brother and I?" she asked him casually, swirling her goblet of juice judgmentally and raising an eyebrow at him.   
He stared back at her, "what false rumors have I spread?" he demanded, "I was only observing that it was a bit suspicious-"  
"Second year you thought Harry and I were the heirs of Slytherin," she cut him off coldly, "because Harry hissed at a snake one time. So you thought we were out to murder all Muggleborns."  
"Well," he stumbled, "that obviously wasn't true but at the time-"  
"Yes, Ernest," he scowled at her sarcastic usage of his full name, "at the time."  
"Maybe you ought to stop inventing fantasies," Kerry snapped, standing behind Rachel with her wand still drawn and ready, "or else-"  
Rachel held up a hand to calm her friend, "leave him to me, Kerry." She turned to Ernie and the crowd of various students that had gathered. Looking at them calmly, she began, "I do not know why or how the Goblet declared Harry as the fourth champion. He did not enter his name, you all know what happened to those underage who tried. Neither did I assist him. Flying a broom over an age line doesn't work that way." She looked around at the questioning faces, "now, I would like to eat breakfast without you lot hovering over me as if I'm about to reveal the latest scandal."  
"You heard her," a growl came from somewhere behind the group. All turned to see Professor Moody limping towards them, "get on with your lives before she does send you all to the hospital wing until the tournament's finished!" at this the group quickly dispersed, leaving Rachel sitting calmly at the Slytherin table with Sadie and Abigail, while Kerry fumed behind them.  
Mad-Eye limped over, half-grinning, "surprised you didn't hex him straight away, Miss Potter. Your friend seems more than up for the task."  
"Hufflepuff would have my head if I did," she responded coolly, beckoning Kerry to sit, "I reckoned it'd be better not to spill more blood in the water."  
Moody gave a throaty laugh, "clever girl," before hopping away.

 

******************************

 

"...write to Sirius. You've got to tell him what happened. He asked to be kept posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts... He's going to find out anyway."  
"How?"  
"-because I already told him, that's how."  
Rachel had caught up to where Hermione and Harry were strolling along the Black Lake, where Durmstrang's ship was moored.  
"What?" they turned to look at her.  
"I wrote to him like, an hour after your name came out of the Goblet. Sent it off with one of the school owls," she said, falling into step beside them, "I'd meant to tell you this morning but you weren't at breakfast, and I got in a bit of scene this morning."  
"Oh, I saw," Hermione said, "did Kerry hex anybody?"  
"No, we just threatened Ernie Macmillan and everyone else a bit. You know, the usual good ol' Slytherin tactics."  
"Rach!" Harry turned the conversation back to their original topic, "why'd you tell Sirius! He came back north because my scar hurt, he'll probably just bust right into the castle with this-"  
"Oh please," Rachel groaned, "it's already all over the Prophet! Rita Skeeter is up to her tricks again, driving the story wildly out of proportion."

 

***********************************

 

"Oh no, what's happening?" Abigail questioned as she, Sadie, Kerry and Rachel turned onto the corridor outside of the Potions classroom to the sound of mocking laughter and flashing lights. Rachel groaned softly upon seeing the scene. Draco and half of their Slytherin year were flashing glowing badges that switched from "SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY- THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION" to "POTTER STINKS" under the noses of Harry and several other Gryffindors.

"What's going on?" Rachel barged through the crowd to where Draco and Harry were glaring at each other, while Sadie, Abigail, and Kerry stood to the side, watching.  
"We're supporting the real Hogwarts champion," Draco informed her, before holding out a badge to her, "want one?"  
"Why would I want a badge that insults myself?" she demanded, as it flashed "POTTER STINKS".  
"It says 'Potter stinks'," Draco said, tone slightly offended, "not 'Mach stinks'."  
"Are you forgetting her last name, Malfoy," Hermione snapped from beside Harry.  
"Why can't you keep your mouth shut, Mudblood," Draco hissed back. Before Rachel could react, Harry had reached for his wand and darted forward aggressively.  
Draco drew his wand coolly, "go on then, Potter."  
"No!" Rachel snapped, stepping in between the two boys, "stop it! Both of you!"  
"Get out of the way, Mach," Draco said calmly, "Moody's not here to look after Potter now. Let's see if he's got the guts-"

The two boys reacted simultaneously, both screaming spells at the other. Rachel didn't have time to jump out of the way, and the twin jets of light hit her at the same time.   
With a crack she was lifted through the air and slammed against the stone wall with injurious force. She crumbled to the ground, clutching her chest, blood dribbling from her mouth.  
"Mach!"  
"Rach!"  
The entire hallway froze in horror before the three Sidekicks screamed- "WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

"And what is all this noise about?" the crowd parted as Professor Snape stepped out of the door of the Potions classroom and surveyed the scene; Harry and Draco stood, wands still in their hands, both staring at Rachel in horror as she hacked up blood onto the stone floor, while the Sidekicks crouched over her in worry.  
"Explain!" Snape snarled at Draco.  
"Potter here attacked me-"  
"We attacked each other at the same time-" Harry argued furiously.  
"He hit Mach!"  
"No, he did!"  
"You both hit her at the same time you blundering idiots!" Kerry had helped Rachel to her feet and was supporting her while glaring at the two boys mercilessly.  
"Broke... damn... ribs!" Rachel managed to croak between rattled breathing and blood. Her eyes were growing unfocused and her face was turning a pasty white.  
"Escort Miss Potter to the hospital wing immediately," Snape ordered Kerry, Abigail, and Sadie, before turning to Harry.  
"How disgustingly ironic, Potter," Snape hissed in fury, "by losing your infamously uncontrollable temper at Mr. Malfoy you somehow manage to seriously injure your own sister."  
"But Malfoy-"  
"Silence!" Snape raged, "fifty points from Gryffindor, the house where one's selfish pride means more than blood, and detention, Potter."

 

"Bloody absurd, it is," Kerry seethed as she supported Rachel along the corridors and to the hospital wing, "you shouldn't have gotten in between them, just let them fight their own battles."  
Rachel responded by spitting out a mouthful of blood, staining her teeth scarlet. Her ribs were choking her, each breath a battle to draw in and then release. She was growing lightheaded and the hallway seemed to spin around her.

"Erhm, excuse me," the girls halted their slow progression, turning to see Colin Creevey looking at Rachel curiously.  
"What?" Sadie demanded in irritation.  
"Er, I'm supposed to get the Potters... Mr. Bagman requested Mach's presence upstairs... the champions are being interviewed... and Rita Skeeter wants to interview Mach too..."  
"Does she look in any condition to be interviewed?" Kerry snapped, "tell them she's got better things to do, like stop coughing up blood everywhere. Now get out of the way!"  
"A-alright," Colin jumped backward fearfully just as Rachel gagged on more blood, and the Sidekicks continued dragging her slowly down the hallway.

"I'm going to give them both a good hexing," Kerry muttered under her breath as the slow moving group reached the hospital wing. Sadie tugged open the doors quickly to allow Abigail and Kerry to drag Rachel in. Her eyes were beginning to roll back into her head.  
"Madam Pomfrey!" Kerry yelled when they entered. The nurse came bustling out of her office immediately.  
"Goodness! What's happened to her now!" she asked frantically.  
"She got hit by two hexes, from Potter and Malfoy," Abigail explained, "broken ribs. And she's coughing up... yeah..." Rachel choked on another mouthful of blood immediately.  
"At least it wasn't Quidditch this time," Madam Pomfrey sighed, ushering the girls to bring Rachel to a bed.

 

****************************

 

"Nyx brought you a letter." Kerry handed Rachel a letter her cat had trotted into the hospital wing carrying. It had been several hours since the incident, and Madam Pomfrey had managed to revive Rachel from the edge of unconsciousness and repaired her ribs, but ordered her to remain in the wing, as she still intermittently coughed up blood, side effect of the nasty combination of both spells impacting her at the same time.  
Rachel took the letter from Kerry, quickly opening it, skimming its short contents, before tapping it with her wand and sending it up in flames. The three girls looked at her curiously but didn't question her actions.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Rachel called across the ward, "can I go to dinner? I haven't coughed up anything in at least... twenty-five minutes."  
Madam Pomfrey bustled over, checking her pulse and ordering her to drink the rest of the potion she'd given her. Rachel did so immediately and hopped out of the bed, "can I go?"  
"Fine, but come back here if you cough up anymore blood!"  
"Let's go!" she beckoned to her friends and they departed from the wing.

 

"Mach, I know you want to-" Sadie began anxiously as they entered the Great Hall, bustling with students for dinner.  
"-but you really shouldn't..." Abigail trailed off as Rachel walked quickly over towards the Gryffindor table, leaving her friends standing there staring helplessly after her.  
"Oh no..." 

"HARRY POTTER." Her voice echoed around the hall, turning heads and halting conversations.  
"Rach?" her brother stood up to meet her, having been forbidden to enter the hospital wing by Madam Pomfrey to visit her.  
The entire hall gasped as Rachel approached her brother, pulled back her fist, and punched him directly in the face with enough force to send him stumbling backwards.  
Slytherin table collapsed into laughter as the Weasley twins winced ("oooh"). At the High table, Professor Moody chuckled before taking a swig of his personal canteen, while Professor Snape conveniently forgot to hide an amused smirk.  
"Severus, I have not once seen you take any disciplinary action against Rachel Potter," McGonagall called from down the table.  
"Mr. Potter doesn't seem to be mortally wounded, Minerva," Snape said smoothly, "plus I can personally guarantee Miss Potter's actions are justifiable."

The hall was tense as Rachel turned and marched away from the Gryffindor table towards where Slytherin had practically fallen off their seats in laughter. All laughter, however, immediately ceased when Rachel yelled, "DRACO MALFOY."  
The smirk slid off his face at her whirlwind approach.  
"Mach..." although he knew what was coming, nothing prepared Draco for the furious force behind her fist. The punch caused him to fall over off his seat, as the entire hall held its breath, until Gryffindor broke into mocking jeers at the now silent Slytherin table.

"Coming?" Rachel asked Sadie, Abigail, and Kerry as she swept out of the hall. The three girls hadn't moved from where they had froze in the entrance.  
"Wasn't that a little... over-dramatic?" Abigail questioned as they headed towards the Slytherin common room.  
"And public, too," Sadie added, with a shake of her curly blonde hair.  
"Yes, and yes," Rachel responded coolly, "but now the entire school knows I'm mad at both Draco and Harry, and I dealt with them equally."  
"Ahh."


	25. XXV

"I'm still mad at you for hexing me, but I figured I ought to tell you, Sirius wrote back," Rachel murmured to Harry as she slid into the seat next to him where he sat with Hermione in the Three Broomsticks under the invisibility cloak. He refused to be seen in public, due to the absurd articles Rita Skeeter had recently published, his anger at Ron, who still blamed him for becoming the fourth Triwizard champion, and because Slytherin had, unforeseen by her, taken after Rachel's example and attempted to hex him whenever they got the chance. Rachel had noticed Hermione sitting by herself in the pub and muttering seemingly aloud to herself, so she added two and two.

"What'd he say?" Harry asked eagerly, not bothering to ask how she knew he was there.  
"Wants to see us tonight, Gryffindor common room."  
"What? How?"  
"Dunno, but I might be late, Hagrid's asked me to do something tonight too, and I'm gonna need to borrow the cloak, but just make sure you're there for Sirius."  
"Alright."

 

***************************

 

"I'm going down," Rachel announced when the clock in the Gryffindor common room showed thirty minutes to midnight, "see you soon, hopefully." She disappeared under the cloak and made her way out of the common room, through the halls and down towards Hagrid's.

 

She knocked on his door and Hagrid opened it, wearing a horrendous looking suit.   
"Mach?"  
"Yeah."  
"Good. I got summat ter show yeh," he said, closing the door behind him, "keep that cloak on."  
She followed him under the cloak as he made his way towards the Beauxbatons carriages. Rachel couldn't help rolling her eyes when Madame Maxime exited the carriage and the pair walked arm in arm away from the castle and around towards the forest.

To Rachel it seemed they had walked an unnecessary long time until roars were heard from ahead. The pair hurried forward and Rachel followed them, intrigued. Her eyes widened upon the sight of the four adult dragons, roaring in an enclosed paddock, wizards running around them, trying to bring them under control.  
Hagrid and Madame Maxime moved closer, questioning one of the handlers, by the looks of it, it was Charlie Weasley.

Rachel had seen all she needed to know. She took one last look at the now stunned dragons and turned tail, heading back towards the castle. She narrowly missed a suspicious looking Karkaroff as he crept through the trees towards the sounds.   
She wondered how she was going to tell her brother that his first task in the Triwizard tournament was to face a fully grown dragon.

 

"Harry!" she whispered loudly as she entered the Gryffindor common room once more. Harry was sitting in front of the glowing fireplace, where Sirius's head floated in the flames. From the looks on their faces, Harry had just finished informing Sirius of how miserable his life was currently.  
"You're back!" both heads turned to look at her as she threw the invisibility cloak off.  
"I know what the first task is!"  
"What? How?"  
"Hagrid just showed me. Dragons."  
"What?"  
"Dragons."  
"What's that mean?"  
"Dunno."  
"...I'm a goner!"  
"Dragons we can deal with," Sirius interrupted, "I've only got a short time here, but there are things I need to warn you two about."  
"What can be worse than dragons?" Harry groaned.  
"Karkaroff," Sirius said grimly, "he was a Death Eater."  
"Oh yeah, and Karkaroff and Madam Maxime know about the dragons too," Rachel added quickly.  
"You're not helping," Harry pointed out.  
"Anyways," Sirius began again, "he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. But I bet that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year, to keep an eye on him. Moody's the one who caught Karkaroff."  
"How'd he get released?" Harry asked curiously.  
"He did a deal with the Ministry," Sirius looked disgusted, "said he'd seen an error in his ways... named a bunch of names, put a load of others in Azkaban, so he's not too popular there. But from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through Durmstrang."  
"But... are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the Goblet?" Harry questioned slowly, "he must be a good actor then, because he was furious about it after."  
"He convinced the Ministry to set him free, didn't he?"  
"I dunno... it doesn't make sense..." Rachel began.  
"Listen to this though," Sirius looked at her, "Moody was attacked the night before starting at Hogwarts. I know they all said it was a false alarm, and Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often, but that doesn't mean he still can't spot the real thing."  
"You think someone tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts?" Rachel asked slowly.  
"Yes."  
"So..." Harry began, "are you saying Karkaroff's trying to kill me?"  
"He seems to care more about Krum and Durmstrang winning than anything else," Rachel added skeptically.  
"I don't know, but I've been hearing some strange things. The Death Eaters seem to be more active than usual... look at the Quidditch World Cup... and that witch who's gone missing."  
"Bertha Jorkins?" Harry asked suddenly.  
"She disappeared in Albania, where Voldemort was last rumored to be," Sirius said, "she would have known about the tournament at Hogwarts this year. Plus she was a huge idiot, nosy, but with no brains at all. The perfect target."  
"You think Voldemort kidnapped her or something, and found out about the tournament..." Rachel calculated.  
"...and Karkaroff is here on Voldemort's orders?" Harry questioned.  
"I don't know for sure..." Sirius paused.  
"I can't see Voldemort using someone like him, who denied his involvement with him and turned in other Death Eaters, though," Rachel said thoughtfully.  
Sirius nodded, "exactly, but it still remains a possibility. But Harry, whoever put your name in the Goblet did it for a reason... and it does seem like a good way to attack you and make it look like an accident."  
"I wanna know why they chose to put Harry's name in the Goblet instead of mine," Rachel announced snarkily.  
"Because they obviously knew that you would blow everything out of proportion," Harry said rather nastily. He turned to Sirius, "know what she did? She punched me in the face in front of the entire Great Hall at dinner the other night-"  
"Because he hexed me!"  
"I wasn't trying to hex you, I was trying to hex Malfoy!"  
"Your spell hit me!"  
"Malfoy's spell hit you too!"  
"It wouldn't have if you hadn't gotten mad-"  
"Quiet!" Sirius snapped suddenly, "you sound like James and Lily, arguing over something trivial. It doesn't matter who, but one of you is going to go up against a fully grown dragon. Now, listen, there is a way to overcome one rather easily-"  
"Shh!" Rachel hushed him this time, tilting her head and listening. Footsteps were descending from the boys' dormitory staircase across the room.  
"Someone's coming!" Harry whispered, "go!"

**Author's Note:**

> All Rights to J.K. Rowling, only non-canon characters, events, and dialogue belong to me.


End file.
